Some opposition groups (PSC, Comuns and Mixto-PP) have criticized the Catalan government this Friday for the insufficient level of execution of investments in hydraulic works by the Catalan Water Agency (ACA). They did so in their interventions before the appearance of the Minister of Climate Action, David Mascort, in Parliament, where he gave an account of his department’s budgets for 2024. In his explanation, Mascort used, among other elements to defend his position, that the ACA will urgently activate investments this year to confront the drought worth 150 million euros, an amount that, as he explained, was initially planned for 2025.
Some of the parliamentary groups demanded more agility in the investment pace of the Government. The ACA has managed to accumulate (as of December 31, 2022) a remaining treasury of 540.7 million euros, a sum that has attracted the attention of numerous sectors, taking into account the notable deficiencies in infrastructure and the insufficient pace of investments in the water cycle in Catalonia in recent years.
Specifically, until the end of 2022, of those 540.7 million, the ACA had 356.75 million committed and 184.01 million had no application.
The PSC-Units deputy, Sílvia Paneque, has expressed her concern about the execution of the ACA budget, and has demanded “leadership, clear direction, courage and execution of the items.”
Along these lines, Enric Bárcena (Comuns) also questioned the high grades of this remnant.
Likewise, the mixed group deputy Daniel Serrano criticized the low levels of execution. “You conjugate the verbs budget and execute wrong,” he said.
From ERC, Eugeni Villalbí, has defended the investments projected by the Government and has asked the groups to endorse the accounts: “The rain does not fall from the sky and the investments will not arrive without budgets.”
The report of the Catalan Water Agency of 2004 admits that “as of 2020, for various reasons, the volume of investments has not reached the level that income allowed, which has meant that between 2020 and 2022 year after year the remaining treasury has been increasing.”
Minister Mascort has justified the situation in Parliament by explaining that “the Administration, in order to carry out a work, has to have all the money budgeted” and that “very large works are not carried out in one year”, which is why it remains as the remainder affected for multi-year periods.
Regarding the remainder of the ACA of 540.7 million, he added that now “all the amounts are affected (committed); the only one that may not be affected, but that is not the case, are works that we are advancing and that we will execute,” he said, referring to a game of 150 million to fight against the drought that will now accelerate.
In relation to the remainder of the uncommitted 181 million euros (as of December 31, 2022), he said that agreements have already been made in recent months in the Government to “affect” them (allocation commitments), so that currently they are already amounts destined to “tender the project, tender the work or the work is being carried out in phases.”
In this sense, Mascort indicated that in the budgets sent to the Parliament it is expected that the ACA will urgently activate investments worth 150 million euros this year that were initially planned for 2025. The budgets, however, are not guaranteed majority, since the support of the Commons is lacking.
The activation of these 150 million will make it possible to incorporate, among others, items destined for the two new Besòs water treatment plants (Barcelona and Montcada), which do not have an executive project, or the recovery or construction of new wells in the area of ??the Ter rivers. , Llobregat and Onyar.
The budget also includes, among other items, 175 million in investments at the local level for infrastructure for water treatment, 130 million for the modernization of the Cardedeu (Ter) water treatment plant and the first phase for improvements in the water treatment plant of the Llobregat in Abrera.
Also notable are the 41 million that will be used to repair the large water leak in Badalona from the artery from Cardedeu to Barcelona (water from the Ter), the subject of neighborhood complaints for years.
The department’s budgets are down 9.3% this year compared to 2023, and stand at 1,291 million euros, as they cannot add Next Generation European funds.
The renewable company created by the Generalitat in 2023, L’Energètica, will “almost” double this year’s budget, up to 65 million euros: “It is an example of this Government’s commitment to public intervention in the market energy”, Mascort has defended.
