The grass in Glòries looks very green while in the rest of the city it languishes. It is not a whim of those responsible for gardening, the groundwater tank in the subsoil of the square allows in the midst of drought to irrigate this area and others around it such as the central promenade of the remodeled Meridiana.
Groundwater has proven to be a great resource for Barcelona. Although it is neither drinkable nor drinkable, it is perfectly valid for watering parks and gardens and carrying out street cleaning tasks, activities affected by the restrictions derived from the drought and which can be overcome with groundwater.
1.2 cubic hectometers of groundwater are obtained from the Barcelona subsoil each year, of which 250,000 come from the largest reservoir: the one in the urban canopy under the Plaza de las Glòries, equipped with four water collection wells, two on the sea side and two others on the mountain side. Built when the road tunnel that passes under the Rodalies and metro tunnels was excavated, not a drop of water can be seen in these facilities. The tank is on the other side of an underground wall and gigantic tubes give the water an outlet by pumping it to the hydrants to which the tanks are connected outside to water green areas or clean streets.
The main challenge in the short term is to connect the system on this side of the city with that on the other, which supplies the Montjuïc mountain and its entire surroundings, from the Joan Miró park tank, the other large one there is. in the city. The reconversion of Consell de Cent street into a green axis was already thought of and under the newly remodeled street the groundwater channeling was installed that must now be completed at both ends, on one side from Consell de Cent to the Joan Miró park, and on the other from the Glòries tank to Paseo Sant Joan, where there is an intermediate tank. The investment to make it a reality will be around four million euros and the municipal government’s intention is to put the works out to tender over the coming months through the public company Barcelona Cicle de l’Aigua (BCasa).
With this action, all the recently planted vegetation in the green axis of Consell de Cent will be irrigated with groundwater and will not suffer even if the drought persists. “We are doing our homework and one of the resources we have is groundwater, which will now also reach a part of the city where there was none,” highlights Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet. The intention of this strategic interconnection is to supply the green axis through which the pipeline passes but also the rest of the green areas in the Eixample district using tanker trucks.
The intention is to promote a network that connects, as far as possible, the 30 groundwater tanks spread throughout the city, with their corresponding 30 hydrants to charge the water trucks. All of this united to a greater or lesser extent with a 100 kilometer network that interconnects some of the deposits and already forms, for example, a ring that goes from Glòries to Rambla Prim on one side and to Ciutadella on the other and also runs along the entire front. coast. In this way, to give an example, the water collected from the Glòries aquifer feeds the Diagonal Mar lake.
A performance will also take place in the Besòs area, as well as in Can Batlló and Montjuïc. In total, 14.4 million euros, framed within the Endreça plan, to expand the groundwater network with adaptation of the existing infrastructure and construction of new sections of the network of pipes and hydrants. In this way, 1.4 cubic hectometers will be obtained. There is room to go since the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) allows Barcelona City Council to extract up to 4.4 hectometres.
