Today, Barcelona City Council has presented to the Generalitat the need to apply the measures of each phase of the protocol to combat drought in accordance with the situation of each municipality. In this sense, it has reiterated the demand to maintain groundwater for irrigation of green spaces as long as it does not mean a reduction in the availability of water for home supply.

The Barcelona City Council considers that the irrigation of green spaces with groundwater, an alternative water resource available to the city, allows the maintenance of green heritage, which is also essential to mitigate high summer temperatures and the negative effects of air pollution.

This request arises from the first meeting of the working group to address the drought situation, promoted by Barcelona City Council, to analyze the current situation and short-term forecasts.

In this first meeting, the group analyzed the measures planned for the current and future situations and noted the willingness of all parties to collaborate. The first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, presided over the meeting. Representatives of the Metropolitan Area of ??Barcelona, ??the Catalan Water Agency, the Delegation of the Government in Catalonia and the operators of Aigües Ter-Llobregat and Aigües de Barcelona participated in this session.

The participants have assessed the serious situation of persistent drought that has been experienced for three and a half years. Laia Bonet stated that we need to “anticipate more and coordinate more between the different administrations in order to foresee those challenges and possible solutions in the short and medium term.”

In this sense, the commitment of the administrations to continue developing policies and infrastructure to make cities more resilient to the effects of drought has been reaffirmed, as an example of the challenges posed by climate change.

In addition to being able to maintain the irrigation of parks and gardens, Barcelona City Council has also requested that the possibility of keeping public swimming pools open, allowing them to be filled, and those for complementary services, such as those for therapeutic use, be maintained. located in hospital centers.

Likewise, it demands to be able to maintain the irrigation of sports fields by federated sport, with consumption limited to 200 cubic meters per hectare and month, understanding that federated sport is also a quality leisure space for the children and young people of the city. and that favors cohesion in the neighborhoods.