Before the ordinary meeting every Tuesday of the Consell Executiu, the interdepartmental committee for drought has met exceptionally, with the presence of all the ministers. In it, the need to achieve water savings in all areas has been reaffirmed, for which reason all the ministries have been commissioned to prepare a plan each of them for immediate actions that serve to reduce water consumption, both for the public and private sectors. The Government’s action does not end: the party summit that Pere Aragonès announced to alleviate the effects of the drought will be held on March 31 at the Palau de la Generalitat.
However, this meeting will take place days after the Government has brought to Parliament a first decree law with measures that parties like the PSC questioned. The Socialists reproached the president of the Generalitat in a parliamentary session that this decree had a more punitive aspect than anything else and Salvador Illa warned the Catalan Executive that he will not support the text if the city councils are charged with responsibilities. The decree will be taken to the Catalan Chamber this Wednesday to see if it is validated by the groups.
At a press conference after the meeting of the Executive Council, the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, appealed to the responsibility to carry out the decree, “because it is urgent and because there is a need for the country to be able to respond to a situation of exceptionality”. “It would be very difficult to understand that limitations were placed on these urgent and concrete actions” to deal with the drought promoted by the Government, the spokeswoman has judged.
Be that as it may, at the summit on the 31st the Catalan Executive intends to share the diagnosis of the serious situation of water scarcity in Catalonia with all the parliamentary groups and to report on the measures that are being carried out.
Plaja explained that the water reserves in the internal basins, those managed by the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua, are at 27% of their total capacity. The spokeswoman has assured that the maneuvers to empty the Sau reservoir continue, to guarantee the quality of the dammed water, and transfer it to the Susqueda reservoir. Sau currently retains 14 cubic hectometres of water, which represents just over 8% of its capacity.
The spokesperson recalled that the Ter-Llobregat system and the Fluvià.Muga aquifer have been in an exceptional situation for two weeks. Nine more areas are on alert and three on pre-alert to guarantee the supply of water to the population and productive activities. The emergency measures to protect the supply and the penalties are included in that decree law that will be taken to Parliament tomorrow.
The Government has wanted to remember that until today measures have been carried out, such as desalination. Measures that between 2022 and 2023 have provided more water than will fit in the Sau and Sant Ponç reservoirs combined. In addition, economic resources are being allocated: tender for the expansion of the Tordera desalination plant at a cost of 250 million euros, and the process is beginning to build the drinking water treatment station in Besòs with 260 million euros until 2030
