The political consensus surrounding the drought that was not possible at the water summit chaired by Pere Aragonès in Palau last month will most likely emerge in Parliament next week, despite the electoral context in which we find ourselves.
A JxCat law proposal will be debated and voted on with urgent measures to alleviate the severe drought situation that Catalonia is experiencing, a rule that aims to correct the decree of the Catalan Executive approved in February. As a result of the Junts initiative, PSC and ERC seem to now agree on the most problematic point, that of the sanctioning regime for councils that do not comply with the restrictions or do not have the mandatory drought plans ready.
All three parties agree on the philosophy that must imbue the new rule in this area. It is based on diluting the possibility of sanctioning based on inflexible moratoriums, as was proposed at the water summit at the proposal of Junts and the PSC – the former proposed fines from July 1, and the Socialists , from September–.
The fines for non-compliant municipalities will be conditioned on the willingness they show to comply with the restrictions, and the way to reflect this willingness is for them to satisfy the obligation to define their specific plans against the drought and to put in place the necessary measures to, for for example, not to exceed the consumption limits per capita (230 liters, as set by the Government decree) or to fix water leaks in the municipal system.
According to the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), on April 27 there were still four municipalities that had not done their homework, three governed by the PSC and one by the ERC. Added to this is the fact that the Government has also not presented its water management plan, which it had to send to Brussels at the end of 2022.
To solve the emergencies in Catalonia, Junts, ERC and PSC have agreed to make available to the councils a line of aid of 50 million euros and to establish the emergency contracting formula, as was done during the pandemic for acquire sanitary equipment, which would speed up the procedures to carry out works enormously.
In the words of the socialists, the solution would be to “move away from specific dates and verify the common objective, which is to give opportunities to councils so that they can carry out the necessary works”. The socialists ask that, before sanctioning, enough leeway is given to the town councils so that they can claim and implement the Generalitat’s aid intended to make improvements to the distribution networks to the user.
In the words of ERC, the solution is the same: “That the measures to accompany the town councils can go in parallel with the sanctions”. This would mean giving them “a margin of time” for them to solve the problems of the network and “only sanction the councils that do not show any will” to collaborate. And “if there is good will, there will be no sanctions”, said spokeswoman Marta Vilalta yesterday.
This is the philosophy, but now it needs to be put on paper. For this reason, meetings between the different political actors are underway in Parliament. Yesterday there were several meetings with each other, with the presence of members of the Government – the general secretary of Climate Action, David Mascort, and the director of the ACA, Samuel Reyes -, to try to unblock the agreement.
