More than 90% of the days of the current Catalan legislature have passed in a drought situation. This circumstance permeates political life, as seen in the monographic debate in Parliament.
Salvador Illa, the socialist leader, even wanted to broaden his focus, extending the responsibilities of the current emergency to the last ten years, in which the successive presidents of the Generalitat “did not do their homework” (and he went back to Mas, Torra and Puigdemont before citing Aragonès).
In his balance, in these 10 years of processes, “Catalonia is today more dependent on water, more dependent on energy and more dependent on investments” and aid from the State. It is clear that Illa knows how to bring water to his mill.
The debate served to make clear the harsh toll (“vulnerability, helplessness, confusion” were terms used) that has caused Catalonia almost a decade of investment drought in hydraulic works, a traumatic experience that is on the way to coining the “mai més”: He conjures it so that, once the trance is over, forgetfulness does not flood everything again.
But the political fray put on the table the philosophical question of what are the responsibilities of an administration that fails to comply with what was planned. Who sanctions those who have the capacity to fine?
ERC has been accused of pointing fingers at the municipalities when it decreed large fines for non-compliance with the water provisions established for the different phases of the alert. And Councilor David Mascort called the PSC “intransigent” for blocking the decree with the fines.
And the defensive reaction of the PSC was immediate, although covered with calls for collaboration. “Imagine, Minister, that another Administration points to the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) or your government and asks for sanctions for not having carried out the works planned years ago. “Don’t want for others what you don’t want for yourself,” said socialist deputy Sílvia Paneque after recalling her proposal for a water pact. In reality she sounded like a non-aggression pact. Paneque proposed allocating the money from fines from “wasteful” city councils to create a fund so that they can improve their infrastructure in the face of the drought.
“No one will punish them for not making enough water available to the citizen,” added deputy Salvador Vergés (Junts), who pointed out the delays in the expansion of the Besòs water treatment plant and documented in depth to try to discredit the option of transporting water in boats.
Various interventions urged solutions to avoid economic losses to the affected sectors (gardeners, textiles, bakers, agri-food,…) and to the industry, which must reduce its consumption by 25%.
“Don’t act thinking it’s going to rain; The ACA must get its act together,” the opposition advised. Now it remains to be seen how the Government faces the shower of criticism and whether it accepts new collaboration formats.
