2 Mallorca towns lose safe tap water: what to do now

Today's essentials (4 key points)

• Open-Meteo forecasts a hot, largely dry Tuesday across the islands, with Palma peaking at 30 degrees while inland Alcúdia reaches 36 degrees under near-clear skies.
• According to the Majorca Daily Bulletin, a pre-election row over tourism has broken out, with calls to redistribute flight times and for airport operator Aena to share data with the island council.
• Balearic authorities report that dependency-care waiting lists have fallen 19 percent over three years, Menorca (Es Diari) writes.
• The Balearic football federation has premiered 'Únics', a film retracing a century of the game in the islands, according to Diario de Mallorca.

Today's essentials

2 Mallorca towns lose safe tap water: what to do now. As of Tuesday 8 September, the tap water in Ses Salines and the Colònia de Sant Jordi is no longer safe to drink, the town hall has warned residents, and neighbouring Campos is in exactly the same situation.

The cause, according to Ultima Hora, is drought combined with a surge in water use over the summer months, which has pushed the sodium and conductivity readings in the public network above their legally permitted maximums. The council is at pains to stress that no other sign of contamination has been found: the problem is confined to those two parameters, essentially too much salt in the supply, not bacteria or pollutants.

Why two towns at once? Campos and Ses Salines draw on the same water system, run jointly through the Mancomunitat Migjorn de Mallorca, the inter-council body for southern Mallorca founded in 1988. Campos raised the alarm first, on 7 September, and Ses Salines followed the next day, which is why residents across this stretch of the Migjorn are getting near-identical warnings within twenty-four hours of each other.

The clearest guidance so far comes from the municipal order (bando) issued in Campos and reported by Manacor Noticias: do not drink the tap water and do not cook with it, but you can still use it for personal hygiene and household chores such as showering, washing up and laundry. The same order bans using mains water to fill swimming pools or to water gardens and vegetable plots. If you live in Ses Salines or the Colònia de Sant Jordi, treat this as the working template while watching for your own council's specific instructions.

For anything you swallow, switch to bottled water: drinking, cooking, ice cubes, coffee and preparing food for children or pets. There is no confirmed timeline for a return to normal. Both the town hall and the Mancomunitat Migjorn expect the readings to improve once the autumn rains arrive and demand drops after the tourist season, but Ultima Hora reports that no precise date has been set.

What this means for you: if your home is in Ses Salines, the Colònia de Sant Jordi or Campos, move to bottled water for everything you eat or drink starting today, while keeping the tap for showers, dishes and cleaning. Hold off on filling the pool or watering the garden from the mains, and keep an eye on your council's official channels, as the all-clear is expected only when the rains return, with no date fixed yet according to Ultima Hora.

Weather today

Hot and dry across the islands, up to 36 degrees inland. Open-Meteo expects a hot, largely dry Tuesday across the Balearics, with Palma sitting between 24 and 30 degrees and inland Alcúdia climbing as high as 36 degrees.

In Palma, look for partly cloudy skies, no rain at all and only a light breeze of up to 10 km/h, so the city itself stays merely warm rather than punishing. The rest of Mallorca runs hotter: around Alcúdia the mercury reaches 36 degrees under mostly clear skies, with a slightly stronger wind of up to 20 km/h to take the edge off.

Out on the smaller islands the sea keeps things gentler, with Formentera ranging from 26 to 29 degrees, partly cloudy and again dry, wind up to 20 km/h. With highs at or above 34 degrees in places, keep water on you, plan errands and beach time for the early morning or the evening, and stay out of direct sun in the middle of the day.

Transport & traffic

• Pre-election clash over Mallorca tourism and flight times. The Majorca Daily Bulletin reports a political war of words over tourism as elections loom, with critics pushing for a better spread of flight times and for airport operator Aena to share information with the island council. Behind the rhetoric is a practical question that touches anyone who flies to or from Mallorca: bunching too many arrivals and departures into the same hours worsens peak congestion at the airport. The call for Aena to hand the council real data on traffic flows is aimed at smoothing those peaks, which, if it ever happens, would mean less crowded terminals and steadier journeys for residents and visitors alike.

What's changing for you

• Eating well in Palma for the price: the menú del día. Newcomers to Palma asking where to eat well without overspending should look for the 'menú del día', the weekday set lunch that remains one of Spain's best everyday deals. The formula is simple and worth learning early: a fixed-price lunch, usually a starter, a main course and a dessert or drink, served on working days at midday. Look for the day's board propped outside a bar or restaurant, or just ask for 'el menú' when you sit down, and note that many places also let you take it away. It changes daily, so it is also a low-cost way to work through the local cooking rather than defaulting to the tourist menu.

Local news to know

• Mallorca's music and dance school turns 50 with a new album. The Escola de Música i Danses de Mallorca is marking half a century with 'Punt de trobada', a commemorative record of eleven songs including 'Bolero confinat', written during the pandemic, according to Ultima Hora.
• Balearic waters top eight Mediterranean zones for nitrous oxide. An international research team has concluded that the seas around the Balearics act as a net source of the greenhouse gases nitrous oxide and methane, recording the highest nitrous oxide flux of eight Mediterranean areas studied, Menorca (Es Diari) reports.
• Row in Paris over women excluded during a group's Eiffel Tower visit. Diario de Mallorca and Diario de Ibiza report a controversy at the Eiffel Tower, where several female workers were reportedly kept away during the visit of a group, an episode noted alongside the 72 women scientists whose names are soon to be engraved on the monument's facade.
• 'Únics' charts 100 years of Balearic football. The Balearic football federation (FFIB) has premiered 'Únics', its official film retracing a century of football in the islands, told partly through the role of the local media, according to Diario de Mallorca.

Tonight and tomorrow, the Balearic Islands

• Dependency-care waiting lists down 19 percent in three years. Menorca (Es Diari) reports that the regional minister for families and social welfare, Sandra Fernández, presented on Tuesday the first assessment of a shock plan launched a year ago, with dependency-care waiting lists down 19 percent over three years. If you or a relative are in the dependency-care system, this is the government's own progress update on how quickly applications are being processed, presented today, though it does not change the steps you take to apply.

See the full agenda, tonight and tomorrow