Catalonia is thirsty. The reservoirs that supply Barcelona and its metropolitan area are at 20%. The Generalitat wants to transfer water from the Segre. Cristina Narbona, Minister of the Environment, is opposed. The Catalan government is looking for alternatives that sound bizarre, such as bringing water by boat. We are in March 2008. The tripartite governs in Catalonia and Zapatero in Moncloa. Artur Mas, in the opposition, calls for the transfer of the Rhône. There is discussion about the waste of water, about swimming pools, desalination plants… In April the Government approved the extension of a pipeline that carries water from the Ebro to Tarragona as “temporary” help for the “emergency” Barcelona is experiencing. Aragón (PSOE) and Comunitat Valenciana (PP) put the cry in the sky. Minister Francesc Baltasar, a communist, prays to La Moreneta. The first boat with water arrives at the port of Tarragona… and it starts to rain.
We are going to go back a little further in time. Summer 2003. Jordi Pujol visits Castellón. There, he defends the transfer of the Ebro that Aznar plans. “No one can argue that the Valencian Country needs water and Castellón in an important way”, instructs the president, who a few months earlier had received shouts of “traitor” in Alcanar from 600 followers of his party. That would take its toll. He himself recognized this years later in Torrent, where he said he felt “very mistreated” by Valencian sectors: “It was my government that opted for the transfer of the Ebro to Valencia, for which I lost four deputies and, perhaps, even the presidency of the Catalan government (…) confronting Aragon, the terres de l’Ebre and the internal opposition in Cataloniaâ€. And he redoubled: “I risked the guy for you, but you direct the protest towards Catalonia and not towards Aragon”.
It is worth this brief historical review to verify two things: the drought comes from afar and not enough has been done and second, the matter lends itself to political manipulation and rancor between territories. The Moncloa begins to discuss how to face a scenario that they believe that the PP already visualizes: that the Government roasts itself on the parched and cracked earth of many areas of Spain. Pedro Sánchez’s environment is convinced that the PP trusted the pandemic first and then the war and inflation without success, and that now it sees an opportunity in the drought and fires. The alert light has already come on. Doñana has been a warning.
The president’s circle of trust has been working for some time on the agenda of an intense election year. It is about taking the initiative and that Alberto Núñez Feijóo is in tow. Hence, Sánchez wanted to settle the reform of the law of only yes is yes as soon as possible. Once the rectification has been agreed with the PP, criticism of new releases of sexual offenders is silenced. And housing is put on the table. A year ago Nadia Calviño took control of Sareb, forcing her to assume 35,000 million as public debt that the bad bank had pending repayment. The objective of that movement is now evident, with Sánchez’s announcement of the availability of 50,000 apartments for affordable rent to autonomies and town halls. Feijóo was only right to reply with a thousand euros of help to young people with insufficient resources (without specifying) to emancipate themselves.
Drought was not in any plan. But in the Moncloa they reacted quickly, also in Europe, to corner Juanma Moreno Bonilla. The Andalusian president can carry out his plan to regularize illegal irrigation, gain local support and win over the Huelva Provincial Council for the PP, but that would have costs for Feijóo in the rest of Spain, accused of allowing Spain to be fined by the EU for failing to comply rulings that protect a World Heritage Site such as Doñana. The Government has brought together the autonomies this week at the table on the drought and is trying to ward off a possible political war on water. In the coming days, they will also try to coordinate civil protection services in the face of probable fires. But offering short-term solutions to the lack of rainfall is going to be difficult. For the moment, its consequences in the cost of food have put an end to the drop in prices that the economy expected would begin to be noticed around this time.
In Catalonia we see signs of the skirmishes that may arise. The meeting between the parties on the drought decree ended without agreement. The PSC accuses ERC of transferring its responsibility to the municipalities. And speeches are already being heard that blame irrigated farmers, water supply companies, tourism, pool owners…
In an autonomous State in which inter-territorial solidarity is used as a thrown weapon between political baronies and acronyms, the dispute over an essential and scarce good such as water can further stress its seams and cause governments to falter. Pujol lived it. José Montilla experienced it. It is not surprising that this week Fèlix Bolaños, Sánchez’s right-hand man and Minister of the Presidency and “Catalan affairs”, was seen contemplating La Moreneta in a pious attitude.
