The persistent drought that keeps Catalonia on alert has polarized the political debate this Sunday in which Pere Aragonès expressed his desire to have the “maximum collaboration” of the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, to reverse the effects of the climate emergency. An aid that the president of the Generalitat frames both in the financing of desalination plants and in the sending of boats with water from basins managed by the State or from desalination plants in other communities.
In an interview with EFE, Aragonès referred to the meeting that Acción Climática’s advisor, David Mascort, will hold this Monday in Barcelona with Vice President Ribera to address solutions that help alleviate the water shortage situation.
“We will probably have to activate some emergency measure, such as water transportation; the ships will have to come from basins that are not the responsibility of the Generalitat, but rather belong to the State, or from desalination plants that are outside Catalonia and, therefore, are responsibility of the ministry. In this sense, we expect maximum collaboration,” Aragonès explained 24 hours after the State-Generalitat meeting.
While waiting for options such as bringing water from desalination plants such as the one in Sagunto (Valencia) to be certified, Aragonès has assured: “All administrations will act jointly and responsibly in this time of difficulty,” he guaranteed.
In any case, the Catalan president is waiting for a concrete “proposal” from the ministry which, he recalled, is the one who “manages the basins that pass through various autonomous communities”, such as the Ebro, or is the owner of many desalination plants. “We expect results soon,” he noted.
In this context, the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has committed to supporting the budgetary measures promoted by the Government to address the drought situation as long as they are “discussed and agreed upon” with his parliamentary group.
This is what he stated in an interview published by El Periódico, in which he reiterates his willingness to “help” the Government, despite criticizing that the “balance of ten years of presidencies” of Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and Pere Aragonès “is that of a Catalonia that is not prepared to face a drought.”
“My position is to try to help. I don’t want to be a stumbling block for the Government,” Illa stressed before asking for “collaboration dynamics from all administrations: the Generalitat, the city councils and the Government of Spain.”
