At 10.00am this morning in Can Marroig, Jaume Ferrer and Bartomeu Escandell, the Formentera Council's president and councillor of rural affairs, were joined by the Govern balear's minister of environment, Vicenç Vidal, in presenting details about an upcoming series of classes before members of the press. Organised by the region's job-seekers' agency (SOIB) and led by the Balearic institute of nature (IBANAT), the course is geared toward teaching construction techniques for traditional drystone walls.

At 12 noon the officials regrouped in the CiF Office of Culture's conference hall to talk with Formentera residents employed in watering fields. Mr Vidal apprised attendees on ongoing revisions at the island's purified-water-fed irrigation reservoir and noted that, today, just one electrical issue requires resolution before crews can embark on the final test-run. According to projections, the reservoir will at least be provisionally operational by year's end.

For his part, Mr Escandell thanked the Palma Office of Environment for their willingness to move forward with implementation of the reservoir. He reminded those present of the installation's nearly €9m price tag and that, in the seven year's since its completion, the reservoir has yet to be used. The rural affairs councillor trumpeted the structure for its ability to “close the water cycle by repurposing purified water for use in local fields”.

The Govern has spent €294,000 on the current push to bring the facilities up to snuff. The news was warmly received by Formentera's community of irrigators. The reservoir, Mr Vidal pointed out, is equipped with 80 distribution points that feed purified water to 70 hectares of land. At the meeting's close, the officials visited Edar de Formentera's purified-water-fed irrigation systems.

The heads of the Formentera Council and the Eivissa-Formentera chamber of commerce, Jaume Ferrer and Juan Manuel Costa, have formalised an agreement to co-present a raft of activities in tandem. Backed by a €7,000 contribution from the administration, the Cambra de Comerç d'Eivissa i Formentera will host courses in continuing education, business consulting, startups, business management, financing and business security between January and October 2017.

The following courses, currently in planning stages, will benefit from the Council's support:

1. Languages: German, English, Italian and French.
2. Trade: customer service, management and window dressing.
3. Information technology, website creation, applied accounting.
4. Entrepreneurs: business creation and management, financing and business security.

By focusing on practical approaches and real-life examples which can be tweaked to fit a variety of contexts, both entities hope to raise local awareness about trade and new strategies in order to increase competitivity.

The Council supports initiatives like this one as a way to ensure Formentera's business community is on equal footing with the rest of the islands and optimise the services offered to tourists, the leading driver of the local economy.