Should city councils be sanctioned by the Generalitat if they fail to comply with the obligation to limit and comply with the water allocations established in the approved drought decree? This is the debate raised just when the region of Barcelona and Girona have entered into an exceptional situation due to the scarcity of water. The controversy takes place when the limitations on the use of water are being intensified, in order to delay or avoid the emergency phase (in which restrictions would have to be applied even for essential services).
Faced with this question, the answer given a few days ago by voices close to the Government was clear: municipalities have been assigned a maximum amount of water (per person and day), and they cannot exceed it. They defended that it is necessary to support this requirement (that of the maximum amount of water) with the threat of a sanction so that there is truly effective compliance. On the other hand, the main opposition parties in Catalonia, PSC and Junts, demand to eliminate this regime of sanctions to the city councils or, in the case of the Socialists, at least a one-year moratorium.
Without losing sight of the fact that the municipal elections are just around the corner, socialists and post-convergents will be in charge of focusing on this issue at the summit on Friday at the Palau de la Generalitat. Both parties will use the political weakness of the ERC Government to join forces again at this meeting and condition the Executive’s policy on drought.
The Catalan Executive requires the town councils -in the approved drought decree- two things: one, that they draw up plans to deal with the possible emergency (when the reservoirs fall below 17%), including the possibility of incorporating cuts in the supply in extreme cases. And two, that they respect the dwindling amounts of water for all uses that have been established for each phase of drought (alert, exceptional, emergency) as established by the framework decree of January 2020, which serves as a reference.
The drought decree (validated by Parliament a few days ago) provides for fines for municipalities of up to 10,000 euros and up to 150,000 euros respectively for these breaches. For this reason, the protest of socialist mayors has not been long in coming.
Many municipalities have been warned by the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua that they can be penalized for exceeding the established water allowances or for lacking a drought plan, including the eventual emergency situation. All this irritated the PSC and Junts, to the point that they have forced the Government to negotiate a new drought decree to make this situation more flexible and for which the so-called “water summit” is held this Friday, with all the parties.
The Minister of Climate Action, Teresa Jordà, stressed a few days ago that “there is no intention to impose fines on town halls”, but rather that the establishment of sanctions “has a dissuasive purpose”, not collection. “The will is not make the whole country angry for four dollars,” he said graphically. “We want to help municipalities fulfill their duties,” he added.
Many voices consider it opportune that the Generalitat should provide itself with a coercive instrument, since if the city councils are not forced to abide by these endowments, more water will continue to be consumed than due and this important weapon would be renounced among the effective measures against the drought. The argument is that the more water is saved, the more emergency measures (and their cuts) will be delayed; and, vice versa, the more lax you are, the more risk there is of bringing the restrictions forward.
Regarding the sanctioning regime, the Government will have En Comú Podem as an ally at the summit. For the common people, the fines are not a problem “if we agree to them”, they warn, and in fact they propose to approve a decree in which the corporations that consume the most water are published.
The Socialists reply that the excessive consumption of water blamed on the municipalities is sometimes due to breaks in the networks and that this can mean repairs that can last for a while. For this reason, they demand more “support and collaboration from the Generalitat”. The supply is a municipal service.
In the field of possible emergency investments, everyone exposes their recipe. All the parties demand to contribute additional resources in the short and long term and advance some of the works foreseen in the hydrological planning. In short, the money would be used to solve water losses in the network and to guarantee the supply.
Emergency works have already been planned (reopening of the La Llagosta water treatment plant, wells…).
Junts puts the amount at 500 million euros for the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua to solve priority actions, and the Socialists propose to dedicate 85 million more over the 760 that they agreed within the framework of the current budgets for medium or long-term investments.
The commons will attach other measures such as the 50% reduction in cruises and the suspension of projects that involve a large consumption of water, such as the Hard Rock.
The Agència Catalana de l’Aigua has not considered including emergency works in the drought decree. His argument has been that any work or investment in infrastructure requires that it be included in the approved hydrological planning, and that its financing be assigned and guaranteed.
