Marked as one of the municipalities that exceed the water consumption limits that have been decreed during the drought situation that Catalonia is suffering, Cervelló faces a complex situation to improve the management of the most precious and increasingly scarce liquid. The town, with 9,764 inhabitants, with a council that has an annual budget of 11.5 million euros, needs more than 31 million to solve it completely. They have a plan, but not the financial resources necessary to carry it out. That is why they are asking for help from other administrations.
“We felt singled out. It seems that the inhabitants of Cervelló rationalize the water badly, and that is not the case, the people do it well. We don’t have that many big consumers”, explains the mayor, José Ignacio Aparicio. “We have swimming pools, yes, but the expense is not for that”, he adds.
The original sin of Cervelló is the uncontrolled urban expansion that took place during the Franco regime, when several urbanizations were carried out with little control in mountainous areas. “There are some that would not meet the legal requirements to be built now”, says the mayor. Materials were used that have degraded over the decades and caused leaks in the network.
“We have a faulty network”, assumes Aparicio. Full of natural space, Cervelló does not reach 10,000 inhabitants, but it has 101 kilometers of streets and 155 kilometers of pipes in a surface area of ??24.14 km2, of which 16 m2 are currently classified as undevelopable.
To compare it with a more compact and less spread-out city in the same region, in Prat de Llobregat, with one of the most efficient water networks in Catalonia, 65,409 inhabitants live there, who have 189 kilometers of pipes to supply the 22, 48 km2 of extension, not counting the airport, which has its own water system.
In other words, since it is located in the middle of the mountain, many more pipes are needed than in a normal city. Therefore, there is more danger of leakage. And even more so if the facilities are old, as is the case. “The topography makes everything more complicated,” sums up the mayor. There are slopes and the water must be pumped.
This situation is not new. It has been known in Cervelló for decades, although it is now, with the severe drought, that it has become more evident and has come to the fore. Why haven’t steps been taken to resolve the situation? “It’s not that we haven’t done anything, we’ve done what we could”, he justifies himself.
In 2018, the City Council prepared a master plan. The idea was to involve the new water management concessionary company in the necessary investments. In other words, to award the exploitation of this basic asset to a firm for decades in exchange for assuming part of the works. But the judicial conflict over water broke out, with the result that the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is the administration with full powers over this asset.
However, Aparicio assures that time has been wasted. “For four years we’ve been going around”, he says. Currently, the City Council is “preparing the specifications” for the new 47-year-old tender, which it hopes to be able to publish in accordance with the AMB.
The City Council’s investment documentation establishes investments with high, medium and low priority. It amounts to 31 million euros without VAT. “It will take years, although many less than the concession. The most important thing is to avoid leaks”, says the mayor. Some actions have already been taken in this regard.
Among the works that the City Council has in its portfolio are the replacement and creation of pipes and pumps to the expansion of reservoirs, including systems that monitor management. “Water is a national problem, we all have to pay for the investments”, considers José Ignacio Aparicio, who is looking for the involvement of other administrations.
