The Catalan government will assess next week whether to lift the emergency phase due to the drought, which, if confirmed, would mean a relaxation of restrictions on water uses. This is the evaluation that will be made after the significant contributions of rain recorded last week. Thanks to them, reserves in the Barcelona and Girona region, served by the Ter and Llobregat, have increased to 23%, which is close to the level of 25/27%%, established as the threshold that would allow the most acute phase of the drought.
The Government has opened the door for the drought emergency to be lifted in the central region of Catalonia and the Costa Brava, a phase that was entered three months ago, when reserves fell below 100 hm3. According to the latest balance of the Catalan Water Agency, with data from this Thursday, the Ter-Llobregat reservoirs are at 23% of their capacity and have reached a volume of 140 hm3, which has gained more than 40% since they reached minimum values ??at the beginning of March.
The Minister of Climate Action, David Mascort, has highlighted that “a lot of water” is entering the reservoirs and has given the gains in the Sau reservoir (Barcelona) as an example.
He also indicated that, although the rain is already subsiding, in the coming days it is expected that flows will continue to enter the reservoirs, since they take time to descend from the headwaters; and, furthermore, new thaws are expected to occur in the Pyrenees.
“Therefore, next week we will be able to see where the reservoirs are and check if we are in a situation to lift the emergency or not; “We have to evaluate it day by day,” said the councilor.
In the case of the Ter and Llobregat basins, since the last rainy period began (on April 28), the increase in reserves has been about 24 hm3 (up to 140 hm3); so they have gone from 19% to 23%.
This amount is equivalent to everything that had been earned in the previous 50 days between March 7 and April 26.
Reserves continue to register a growing rate in the Ter Llobregat system, as 104,0000 liters enter per second and 5,300 liters/s leave. Therefore, increases are still expected in the coming days.
This system, the largest in Catalonia and which feeds 202 municipalities with some six million inhabitants, is still in emergency phase I but the situation could change if reserves continue to increase.
Mascort has indicated that to lower the alert and move to the previous phase of exceptionality, the Ter Llobregat system – the phases depend on the state of each geographic-hydrological unit – will need to reach 165 hm3 (which would mean placing these reservoirs at 27 % of its capacity).
For their part, globally, the reservoirs of the internal basins are at 21.27% with 147.69 cubic hectometers (hm3), which represents three percentage points more and 21 hm3 more than the records of last Friday, before the front. of rainfall n (18.1% and 125.9 hm3).
Before moving to the state of emergency, last February the Generalitat created an intermediate “pre-emergency” stage; However, the minister did not refer to him this Thursday; If it were resorted to, the first measures could be applied to make the restrictions more flexible without becoming exceptional.
At the moment, one of the 18 water units of the internal basins has changed phase, the headwaters of the Llobregat, in the north of the Berguedà region (Barcelona), which was in exceptional status and improved to the alert phase.
The Darnius Boadella reservoir, in the Empordà area (north of Girona), is the most critical unit and the only one in emergency phase II, but the rains have improved the situation and reserves have risen to 14.08%.
In the province of Barcelona, ??the Sau reservoir has gone from being practically empty to growing by up to 7%, although its flows are transferred to the neighboring Susqueda reservoir, the largest in Catalonia and which has also grown, up to 26%. 69%.
In the Sant Ponç and La Baells reservoirs (in the Llobregat basin) 33% has been exceeded, a third of its capacity.
Despite the possible change in the situation of the reservoirs, the head of Acció Climàtica has been cautious: “We must evaluate day by day. There are many circumstances that must be considered. At the meeting of the interdepartmental drought commission next week we will assess all the data and what stage we are in,” he said.
“What we will not do for sure is lift the emergency and, after 15 days, enter again. We must assess the consumption throughout the summer, the needs of the irrigators of each of the units. We must be able to present medium-term scenarios,” he added.
