Firm and unanimous opposition from the parties represented in the Tortosa City Council (Baix Ebre) to the controversial interconnection of the Ter-Llobregat system with the network that transports water from the Ebro mini-transfer to Tarragona. Against the measure proposed by the Catalan professional associations of engineers and economists to face the historic drought, the municipal government of Tortosa (Movem-PSC and ERC), the CUP and Junts, at the head of the opposition.
All the parties voted yesterday afternoon in favor of an institutional declaration at the proposal of the Platform in Defense of the Ebre (PDE), the social movement that has led the fight against any form of transfer of the Ebro for 25 years. First, in against the national hydrological plan of Aznar’s PP (2001), and in 2008 against the same interconnection of networks promoted by the tripartit Government (PSC, ERC and Initiative) in the previous drought.
It is the first institutional demonstration against the pipe connection of the Barcelona area with the network of the Consorci d’Aigües de Tarragona (CAT), which since the 1980s has been distributing water from the Ebro mini-transit from the Terres de l’Ebre to the Camp de Tarragona and Baix Penedès. The current Government has dismissed it.
“It is not the solution to Catalonia’s water problems. It is very important that Tortosa leads the rejection of any form of water transfer to Barcelona,” highlighted its mayor, Jordi Jordan (Movem-PSC). One of the arguments put forward is the low flow of the Ebro River when it reaches its final stretch, as it passes through the Terres de l’Ebre, until its mouth into the Mediterranean, key to the survival of the Ebro delta. ‘Ebre also needs water, we must preserve the ecological flow of the Ebro with water and sediments to preserve the Ebro delta,’ reasoned Mar Lleixà (ERC), first deputy mayor.
The platform declaration approved by the plenary session maintains that the interconnection of networks “aims to ensure the availability of cheap water for the development of the Urbanístic Metropolità Director Plan (PDUM) where 217,000 new homes are planned.” The anti-transfer movement also assures that it is a “structural measure not linked to the current emergency” because “the execution time is very long.” The platform recalls that it would make necessary the modification of the Ebro mini-transfer law approved in 1981 and which established the province of Tarragona as the territorial limit.
Regarding the sending of ships with water from the Ebro from the port of Tarragona to Barcelona, ??a measure that was announced by the Generalitat starting in June if the drought persists, neither the approved institutional declaration nor the party spokespersons were so clearly opposed. , although they were critical. “Question the measure due to the impact and for being inefficient in solving the problem of water scarcity.”
