The Maresme County Council has drawn up a new model of municipal ordinance to fight the drought, which differs in some aspects from the one proposed by the Catalan Water Agency (ACA). Among other differences, he considers that requirements such as carrying out monthly inspections are economically and operationally unfeasible for councils. From the coastal region, they also disagree with the option of supplying water with cisterns to the most needy municipalities without propulsion groups.
At the discretion of the Maresme County Council, the municipal ordinance that the ACA proposes for the municipalities to approve in their respective plenary meetings is impossible to comply with. The chief executive of Climate Action of the supra-municipal body, Lluís Farrerons, identifies several problems in the proposed regulations that “make it unfeasible, especially in small municipalities”, but also in those that are obliged to regulate consumption for having more than 20,000 inhabitants. “If the ACA proposal is applied, the cost overrun for councils would be huge and unaffordable”, he says.
The Catalan agency proposes that the municipalities be in charge of carrying out inspections and meter readings on a monthly basis and from there impose the penalties. From the Maresme, on the other hand, they propose that the readings can be done quarterly and that they can be adapted to the needs of each municipality, without forgetting that more control can be exercised over large consumers.
The ACA, they claim from the Maresme, “has not thought about the particularities of each municipality” but it does warn that it will sanction the localities whose consumption is excessive, as it has already started to do in some towns. “Imposing fines of 50,000 euros every month on the municipalities is surreal”, says Farrerons, who wonders if these sanctions will end up having an impact on the citizens or have an impact on the municipal budgets.
The mathematical formula that, according to Farrerons, the ACA proposes to calculate the penalties only takes into account the estimated population and the equivalent of each municipality, in which large consumers, such as industries or hotels, are taken into account. Based on the equivalent, an average consumption per inhabitant is calculated and if this average is exceeded, a penalty is imposed.
The ordinance proposed by the Regional Council for the municipalities of the Maresme also has a punitive nature based on excess consumption, but it gives more leeway to the councils to apply the fines. Minor offences, such as washing vehicles in the street or filling small swimming pools, can result in a fine of 751 to 1,500 euros and from there a gradation that can reach 3,000 euros if the act is considered very serious, such as filling a large swimming pool.
Although the Regional Council does not have sanctioning powers, the ACA also does not have them to oblige to have a regulatory ordinance, but, on the other hand, municipal non-compliance could have an impact on future subsidies, according to the councillor. The county ordinance has been drawn up with the collaboration of private operators, such as Aigües de Mataró, based on “logical criteria” adaptable to each municipality.
In addition, other measures are being promoted, such as the one launched by Aigües de Manresa, focused on using the water that emerges from treatment plants for irrigation. According to Farrerons, the Department of Health was initially opposed to the initiative, but has softened its refusal and, for this reason, the Maresme will soon inaugurate a water regeneration station (ERA).
