Decreed the first states of emergency due to the drought in Catalonia

The Government has decreed a state of emergency in 24 Catalan municipalities located in the Fluvià Muga aquifer area (22), in Alt Empordà, and in the Riudecanyes reservoir (2), in Baix Camp. They are the first municipalities to arrive at the emergency scenario, the most serious included in the Special Drought Plan (2020). Samuel Reyes, director of the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua (ACA), stresses that the municipalities of the Empordà are exceeding in a very significant and majority way the allocations of water assigned in the Special Drought Plan. Most of these municipalities confess that they are using more water than stipulated in that plan, according to the information they are providing monthly to the Generalitat. However, the municipalities cannot be fined for this reason, given the parliamentary agreement that was reached and which set a moratorium on the sanctioning regime until there was aid to the municipalities. This sanctioning regime will be reactivated next week.

In this emergency phase, a limitation of global water consumption per supply is set to a maximum of 200 liters per inhabitant per day. This will entail -according to the ACA- the obligation to drastically reduce consumption in the affected municipalities of the Alt Empordà, where only 41% of them are complying so far with the allocations established by the Drought Plan, while 50% do not comply and the remaining 9% do not provide consumption data.

While the emergency situation lasts, the municipalities that have a connection to the Costa Brava Girona Water Consortium system will reduce their extractions from the aquifer. The emergency phase includes three stages in which water cuts for municipal uses are planned and graduated.

The emergency declaration will affect a total of 22 municipalities in Alt Empordà that are supplied by the aquifer of the Fluvià Muga, one of the main sources of water supply for a large part of the region, as well as two municipalities in Baix Camp that depend on the water from the Riudecanyes reservoir.

The Fluvià Muga aquifer is in a critical situation; It is located at 14.4 meters above sea level, below the lowest level reached so far, that of 2009, which was 14.5 meters, due to the lack of rain in recent months in the region of Alt Emporda.

The 22 affected municipalities, which comprise a population of 24,399 inhabitants, are: Agullana, Armentera, Capmany, Espolla, Garriguella, La Jonquera, Masarac, Mollet de Peralada, Palau-saverdera, Pau, Pedret y Marzà, Peralada, Sant Climent Sescebes, Sant Miquel de Fluvià, Sant Mori, Sant Pere Pescador, Torroella de Fluvià, Ventalló, Vilabertran, Viladamat, Vilajuïga and Vilamacolum.

As for the reservoir of Riudecanyes (Baix Camp), which is at 6%, with a volume of 0.3 hm3, an emergency will be declared to guarantee drinking water in the municipalities of Riudecanyes and Duesaigües.

The ACA has proposed that the municipalities that depend on the Siurana reservoir, which are in a situation similar to that of Riudecanyes, adopt the measures of the emergency phase, despite being the responsibility of the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE). .

With the entry into emergency, the Generalitat sets a global supply of water of 200 liters per inhabitant and day on average per municipality.

This is a figure that is being exceeded in the municipalities of the Empordà, as highlighted by the director of the ACA, Samuel Reyes, based on the data provided by the municipalities themselves, which are obliged to inform the Generalitat of the consumption they are making.

The information available indicates that of the 22 municipalities in the Fluvià Muga exploitation area, only 41% comply with the allocations established by the Drought Plan, while 50% do not comply and the remaining 9% do not provide consumption data. .

Samuel Reyes warned that the Empordà not only has not reduced water consumption but has even increased it in June. Its cost is being 243 liters per person per day (when in the exceptional phase they should have been 230 liters; and from now on, 200 liters). “The situation of the aquifer is critical and we are going to help the municipalities with everything possible,” he added. In the Alt Empordà as a whole, 37% of the municipalities are making use of an endowment higher than what was set by the Special Drought Plan.

The director of the ACA repeatedly pointed out the excessive water consumption in these Alt Empordà municipalities, which he related to a residential typology, among other elements. “There are very different cases in these municipalities, but there are areas with swimming pools, private garden areas; you walk through some areas and you see that everything is still green, when in Barcelona you see everything dry”, proof that it would be watering despite the ban .

The Alt Empordà municipalities where these resources are scarce may see the situation worsen if they enter into new stages of the emergency, which may lead to a reduction of supplies to 180 and 160 liters per person per day.

At this point, Reyes recalled that the realization of possible domestic restrictions would correspond to the municipalities. “They are the holders of the service” and what they must “ensure to bring water to the citizen.”

The Generalitat is open to continuing to give aid (to open new wells, improve efficiency and provide technical, legal and economic aid). “But we are not going to open a street and fix a leak,” he said graphically.

At a general level, the main non-compliances related to the various alert phases would be the excessive watering of green areas, while it is more difficult to know if there has been emptying of private pools, also taking into account that these actions are carried out above all in winter (at times when that measure may not apply).

There has also been knowledge of cases of municipalities in which tree plantations have been made and irrigation has been carried out, he said.

In this emergency scenario, in the Riudecanyes area agricultural irrigation is suppressed (only survival irrigation of woody crops may be authorized) while in the Muga area it must be reduced by 80%.

In addition, the water consumption of industrial users must be reduced by 25% and also the consumption of water in recreational uses (25% in uses similar to urban and total suppression of irrigation). Likewise, the use of water for the irrigation of gardens and green areas (public and private) is prohibited, the total prohibition of the total or partial filling of ornamental fountains, artificial lakes, freshwater pools and the prohibition of cleaning any vehicle, except in specific cleaning establishments.

Local administrations, through their emergency plans, can establish additional limitations/prohibitions on the use of water in sports, public/private facilities and recreational spaces.

The Special Drought Plan also establishes coordination measures between the contributions of the aquifer and those of the supra-municipal network of the Consorcio de Aigües Costa Brava Girona. While the emergency situation lasts, the municipalities that have a connection to this system will reduce their withdrawals from the aquifer, in accordance with the instructions established in the Plan, and will increase the consumption of water from the Costa Brava Girona Water Consortium, as well as of the Commonwealth of Waters of Garriguella, Vilajuïga, Pau and Palau-saverdera.

The director of the ACA referred to the water quality monitoring protocols that the Agency has been carrying out for months in coordination with the different operators responsible for monitoring it, and which at this time of year are intensified as a result of of rising temperatures and low rainfall. It must be borne in mind that biological and physical processes take place in reservoirs throughout the year that condition and modify the quality of water at different depths.

The reduction process in the dammed volumes of water affects this quality due to its interaction with the sediments deposited for years. In addition, during the hottest season, and in the current context of drought, the quality of the water suffers.

In the case of the Ter system, exhaustive controls are being carried out once a week and water is being released from the drainage organs, actions that allow a better quality to be obtained.

The public company ATL is implementing measures to ensure that the quality of the treated water meets legal requirements, such as the installation of active carbon filters in the Ter water treatment plant (Cardedeu).

Actions are also being coordinated with the Aigües Costa Brava Girona Consortium to optimize the treatments at the Montfullà water treatment plant.