Sun, saltwater, celebrities — and an island offering a glimpse into the future of drinking water.
Every summer, Ibiza performs its familiar magic.
The yachts arrive. The villas fill. DJs, footballers, actors, entrepreneurs and an international constellation of stars descend on the island.
Ibiza has become one of the world's great stages for the good life.
Which made us wonder:
What are they actually drinking?
Bottled mineral water?
Filtered tap water?
Or water that, not very long ago, was part of the Mediterranean Sea?
It sounds like a playful question.
But behind glamorous Ibiza lies a fascinating water story.
First, come to Ibiza with us
We made a short featurette to introduce the Aqvita Ibiza story.
Sun. Water. Hydration. Ibiza. Aqvita.
WATCH THE AQVITA IBIZA FEATURETTE →
An island surrounded by water
Ibiza has a paradox.
It is surrounded by water — but fresh water is a precious resource.
Its underground aquifers are under pressure, while summer tourism dramatically increases demand at exactly the driest time of year. The Balearic authorities identify overexploited aquifers and the risk of salinisation among the islands' structural water challenges.
So Ibiza increasingly turns to the sea.
Today, the island's three desalination plants are connected through an approximately 80-kilometre network supplying all five municipalities. Capacity is being expanded further, and a fourth desalination plant is planned as part of the effort to protect groundwater resources.
In other words, while visitors spend their days looking at the Mediterranean, some of the water they use has taken an extraordinary journey from sea to tap.
Desalination is brilliant. But then comes another question.
Modern reverse osmosis is remarkably good at purification.
Seawater is pushed through highly selective membranes, separating fresh water from salts and other dissolved substances.
But the process also removes naturally occurring minerals such as magnesium and calcium.
That is why desalinated water undergoes post-treatment and remineralisation before it enters the drinking-water network.
And this is where the story becomes particularly interesting to us.
Because once technology allows us to remove almost everything from water, a new question appears:
What should we put back?
Water isn't always just H₂O
Take two glasses of perfectly clear water.
They may look identical.
Chemically, they can be very different.
Natural waters acquire their mineral composition as they move through rocks and soil. One may contain almost no magnesium. Another may contain significant amounts of magnesium, calcium and bicarbonates.
Drinking water can therefore contribute minerals to our diet. Research has also shown just how widely magnesium concentrations can vary between different tap and bottled waters.
Yet most of us know remarkably little about what is actually in the water we drink every day.
We know our proteins.
Our vitamins.
Our electrolytes.
Our supplements.
Our magnesium.
But ask us how much magnesium or calcium is in our drinking water and the answer is usually:
no idea.
The Ibiza paradox
This creates a curious contrast.
We use sophisticated technology to remove minerals from seawater and produce exceptionally pure fresh water.
Meanwhile, consumers buy minerals back through tablets, powders, gummies, functional drinks — and bottles of mineral water transported from somewhere else.
Perhaps there is another format hiding in plain sight:
the water we already drink.
This is where Aqvita comes in
Aqvita took inspiration from natural mineral water.
Instead of transporting the water and its minerals together, we asked whether the two could be separated.
Could you keep the water available locally — and simply add the minerals you want?
That idea led us to develop our liquid mineral formulations.
No pill.
No powder to mix.
No extra bottle of mineral water to carry home.
Keep the water. Change what's in it.
And suddenly Ibiza feels like a very natural place for Aqvita.
So, are the stars drinking desalinated water?
Some probably are.
Others will be drinking bottled mineral water.
And many may have no idea what is in their glass.
That may be the most interesting part of the story.
For decades, the great challenge of water treatment was learning how to remove what we don't want.
Perhaps one of the next questions will be about what we choose to put back.
Ibiza — with its mix of lifestyle, scarcity, technology and reinvention — feels like a rather good place to start that conversation.
See you on the island.