Last weekend, the Annual Interisland Meeting of the
GOB took place in Menorca. An important part of the meeting was
dedicated to analysing and evaluating the Sectorial Directive Plan for Energy for the Balearics, elaborated by the Balearic
Government and that is at present open for public information. The GOB's conclusion is that the Energy Plan permits
continuing the same model of urban growth as the past few years, as it increases the electric power by 75% over the next 15
years. The ecological organisation considers that the Energy Plan does not respond to any sustainable environmental model
and therefore it agreed, in the Interisland meeting, to ask the Balearic Government, in fact the
Department for Innovation and
Energy, to withdraw the Energy Plan,
presented last July 19, and to elaborate a new Plan that starts from absolutely different
bases.
More information:: Línies fonamentals del
Pla Director Sectorial Energètic de les Illes Balears (19/07/2000)
In the interisland meeting the problem of the water and solution pointed at from the adminsitration were considered. In this
sense, the GOB strongly cricitised the policies started by the central
Minister of Environment, Jaume Matas, which promote the
indiscriminate installation of desalination plants from sea water in the great part of the municipalities on the coast of the
Balearics. The organisation considers that the desalination of sea water implies an extremely high consumption of electric
energy that obliges the construction of new power centres and therefore to increase the emission of contaminating gases.
Therefore, the GOB insists on the need to give priority to saving policies, improving the network of drinking water, the sewage
and reuse of treated water, installing individual metres, rationalising the agricultural use and restricting the tourist growth.