Municipalities of the Solsonès region in which the water supply for livestock uses is guaranteed through the general domestic supply network have made public their discomfort and expressed their complaints after having been pointed out by the Catalan Water Agency (ACA ) as responsible for an excessive use of water in the current drought. These municipalities depend on a single network through which the service is provided for both domestic and livestock uses.
The discontent of these municipalities has come to light once the ACA announced on Wednesday the water consumption in the internal basins, which made it possible to verify that 36% of the municipalities exceed the amount of water set by the Generalitat for the phase of exceptionality (230 liters per person per day).
“We have shown our anger and some indignation to the Agència de l’Aigua because the data it has offered on water consumption in our municipality lends itself to a misinterpretation,” Xavier Vilalta, mayor of Pinós (Compromís per Pine trees). “We are consuming the same or less than the rest of Catalonia; What happens is that in this municipality there are many livestock farms, chickens, pigs, calves, and that causes consumption to skyrocket”, the mayor specifies. “The ACA should have taken all this into account before reporting, because it puts us in a bad light,” he says.
The Generalitat has established for municipalities a maximum water supply of 230 liters of water per person per day, but in localities without a separation of the supply network that distinguishes the domestic consumption of livestock farmers, there may be imprecise information. Vilalta adds that the ACA has promised that this differentiation will be taken into account in the future information it offers. This circumstance affects all the municipalities of the Mancomunitat d’Abastament d’Agua del Solsonès, which are nourished with resources from the Cardener river, where disproportionate consumption data has been offered:?Pinós (1,339 liters) Clariana de Cardener (784 liters) Riner (562) and Olius (542).
“Our networks do not separate domestic supplies from farmers,” also explains Ingrid Melero, mayor of Clariana, who was surprised by this controversy four days after her election as mayor.
ACA sources indicated that the data on consumption offered “are provided by the municipalities themselves or by supplying entities” and that “from the ACA we do not modify or touch the figures.” For this reason, they indicate that “if a municipality jointly accounts for domestic and livestock consumption, it can request to be able to provide the data separately.” They added that “if we see that a piece of information does not add up, we contact them.” Jordi Codina, a technician from the Mancomunitat del Solsonès, specified Clariana’s data: 468 liters per person per day, of which 357 liters are for farms, 37 liters for domestic uses and 74 for industrial uses.
Regardless of certain specific situations and the need to refine the information, ACA sources indicate that the dissemination of water consumption should help municipalities make more rational use of this resource. The cases of exceeding the allocations of water are due to unjustified excessive consumption, specific leaks, the existence of inefficient networks or technical errors in the information provided. The Government approved this Tuesday a line of subsidies endowed with 50 million euros to help city councils to repair or improve networks.
The ACA also revealed that another 8% of municipalities have not even provided data, while it has been seen that municipalities in the metropolitan area are particularly compliant. However, in the central region of Catalonia there are municipalities that far exceed the threshold of 230 liters: for example, Sant Esteve Sesrovires (394 liters), Matadepera (363) or Cubelles (325). In the same way, Castellet y Gornal (427), Vilobí del Penedès (421) or Pacs del Penedès (383) surpassed the list.
The ACA has sent more than 90 requirements and has opened some thirty sanctioning files for not presenting the data, which may be a “red flag”, although the sanctions for exceeding the water allowances will begin in the coming months.
