The Government plans to bring water by boat from the Sagunt desalination plant (in Valencia) to Barcelona to combat the serious drought situation that the entire central region of Catalonia is experiencing, including areas of Girona and the Costa Brava. Sources from the Generalitat Valenciana have confirmed the proposal of the Ministry of Ecological Transition led by Teresa Ribera and have given their approval to the initiative out of solidarity between communities.
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, explained that he has received the minister’s call and that he has shown his favorable position by invoking “water solidarity between regions.” He has also had a guarantee that the desalinated water that is transported will have a priority and almost exclusive use for emergencies for the consumption of water for domestic consumption. Thus, Mazón has proposed to Ribera that they be guaranteed in a documentary manner that this overexploitation of the Valencian desalination plant (and that it will lead to more brine waste) does not have impacts on the marine environment.
Mazón has insisted that Valencians also demand that “water solidarity between regions be officially extended throughout Spain.” thus referring to the fact that the south of Alicante historically suffers from significant water deficits.
The PP leader has taken advantage of the conversation with the head of the Ecological Transition to ask her not to forget the needs of L’Albufera, the main Valencian wetland that is also going through a major crisis. The Valencian Community and the central government maintain differences over the contributions of the Tajo-Segura transfer to the southeast, which the Valencian government considers insufficient.
The Ministry’s proposal, the Mazón executive points out, would involve increasing the capacity of Sagunt’s infrastructure. Sagunt plant, whose management is in the hands of the state public company Acuamed. This facility has a production capacity of 22,900 m3/day through three treatment lines of 7,633 m3/day each, which is equivalent to an annual production capacity of approximately 8 Hm3/year.
On the other hand, sources from the Department of Climate Action of the Generalitat admit to this newspaper that there have been contacts between Acuamed (the state company that manages the Sagunto plant) and the public company Ens d’Abastament d’Aigua Ter-Llobregat (ATL ), which would be in charge of coordinating the tasks to carry water from Valencia to Catalonia.
However, last Thursday Councilor David Mascort already warned that “the complicated thing is finding boats.” Regarding the meeting that he will have with Ribera, he expressed hope in finding “the formula to bring water to Barcelona if necessary.” “I have said many times that the relevant thing is not where it comes from but that when we need it we can go look for it and have it ready,” he remarked.
The Valencian solution comes after the president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, requested by letter an “urgent meeting” with the minister to express his rejection of any interconnection of the Ebro water network in Tarragona with that of the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona. clearly crossed out as “transfer”.
“I can’t imagine that if the minister is going to meet with the Generalitat, she will not do so with the Government of Aragon. “No decision can be made about the Ebro without first listening to the Aragonese,” Azcón said, assuming that this possibility would be discussed at the meeting scheduled for Monday between Teresa Ribera and the Climate Action Minister, David Mascort.
Despite these statements by the leader of the Aragonese PP, the Government has already shown its confidence in being able to overcome the drought without the emergency interconnection of the Ebro water network in Camp de Tarragona with the metropolitan network of Barcelona (of the public company ATL), as four professional associations have requested, to face future droughts.
