The expansion works at the Tordera desalination plant in Blanes, which will make it the largest facility of this type in Catalonia, will be financed with a loan from the central Administration. With a budget of 220 million euros, the investment in the Tordera II desalination plant will be paid with loans from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The loan must be returned by the Generalitat since this type of hydraulic works are subject “to the principle of cost recovery”, so there will be a tariff impact and they will end up being paid by the users.
The new Tordera desalination plant in Blanes (like the Cubelles/Foix desalination plant) will be financed by the central Administration, but it will not be through non-refundable subsidies but will be done through a loan within the aforementioned PRTR. This will mean that the Catalan Administration will have to return the credit to the State, although it will not be with resources included in the ordinary budgets of the Generalitat, but rather they will be returned with the income obtained through the receipt of water.
“These Recovery Plan funds are subject to the European principle of cost recovery, so that the users” of the water service will pay, explains Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for the Environment of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.
This is a work that would be paid for through tariffs. The nuance is important. It is one thing that the State budgets or the budgets of the Generalitat pay for it with their own resources in the strict sense (taxes), and another, that in the end the users pay for it. In any case, these funds would be returned in 30 years and the loan will be granted “under very favorable conditions” and with an impact on the water bill that would not be significant, says Morán. “They are credits that are obtained under very advantageous conditions,” emphasizes the Secretary of State.
The Generalitat’s budget for 2023 reserved an amount of 165 million euros for this desalination plant; and given that the financing now comes from the central Administration, it is worth asking what would be the destination of these resources that are released.
Spokespersons of the Department of Climate Action rejected the request of this newspaper to clarify all these extremes related to the financing of the desalination plant.
The experts consulted point out that the repayment of this credit could be done by integrating the costs of this new desalination plant into those already assumed by the public company of the Generalitat ATL (adding them to those of the other hydraulic plants operated by this company of the Generalitat, such as those of the Tordera desalination plant).
ATL is the major supplier of high-pressure water to 110 municipalities in the Barcelona and Girona region. The cost of the investment and the repayment of the credit will make the sale of water more expensive to municipalities and companies, and these in turn will pass it on through tariffs to subscribers. “In the end, in every way, the citizen always ends up paying, whether with taxes or in the water bill,” says a person familiar with this management.
However, decisions about how hydraulic works are paid for in emergency periods can become very relevant, given the experience of previous droughts. The water crisis suffered by the Barcelona region is due (apart from the 38 months without rain) to the lack of investments in a decade, the investment drought by the Generalitat (2009-2017) and the fact that equipment was already deprogrammed. planned (such as the Tordera II and Cubelles/Foix desalination plants), which would now be crucial.
After the previous drought –in the period 2009-2017–, the ordinary budgets of the Generalitat barely included contributions and it was decided that the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) would go into debt from the fee paid in the water bill. .
Later, the debt was so great that the priority became the repayment of the credit, so that works that are now essential were descheduled. The Government has, however, promised to allocate up to 120 million euros in aid to municipalities to improve the efficiency of their network.
The new Tordera desalination plant has suffered continuous delays. It was included in the first cycle of hydrological planning of the Generalitat (2009-2015), but the works were not carried out, and it was also incorporated in the second cycle (2016-2021), although along the way the expectation arose that it would be declared of general interest and will be paid by the central Administration. The ups and downs have continued in the current phase, since since the Government decided to finance the work (in April 2023) the long transition to establish the new central Executive and the need to coordinate with the Generalitat have caused more uncertainties and delays, without The date to put the project out to competition is now clear. “The Government has already put 165 million for this infrastructure in its budget. If the financing offered by the ministry does not suit you, do it with your budgets. But put the work out to tender now!” says PSC deputy Silvia Paneque.
