“The reduction of water pressure in the supply network is one of the scenarios we have planned for the most serious phase of the drought emergency”, says Joan Herrera, head of the energy area and environment of the Prat de Llobregat City Council. The Barcelona City Council has also included extreme measures in its emergency plan to deal with worst-case scenarios, including the lowering of network pressure and scheduled supply cuts, explains Eloi Badia, its councilor Climate Emergency.
They are two examples of how the municipalities of the Barcelona and Girona region (mainly supplied by the Ter and the Llobregat) see the threat of domestic restrictions closer and closer if it does not rain; rather, if it doesn’t rain much.
More than 30 months with almost no precipitation have caused the volume of water in the reservoirs to drop to a quarter of its capacity (27%).
And in the face of the possibility of an emergency (when reservoirs are at 17%), the Government urges councils to prepare local plans to deal with the drought and details the savings measures and domestic cuts they could apply.
The limitations on the use of water now affect 224 municipalities in 15 counties and about six million people. The Generalitat has been reducing the available water allocations (according to the established alert, exceptional and emergency scenarios). These limitations have focused on the phase of exceptionality in the agricultural, livestock and industrial sectors (with cuts of 40%, 30% and 15% respectively); and, in addition, the use of potable water for irrigation of public and private parks and green areas, among others, has been prohibited.
But if the emergency phase is reached, the limitations for these uses will rise by 80%, 50% and 25% respectively. And, in addition, even more restrictive measures will be applied: the current allocation of 230 liters per person per day for all uses will have to be cut further in the municipalities. Then it will be the town councils that will have to decide which saving measures or cuts are implemented, which would affect basic domestic restrictions.
Fonts d’Agbar (a company that supplies 23 metropolitan municipalities) state that, in order to carry out the control and regulation of the new water supplies, “one of the variables that can be acted upon is a reduction in the pressure of the ‘water and the possible hourly cuts’. A reduction in water pressure, they admit, could have a greater effect on higher floors, while lower floors would barely notice it. “The technicians are warning us that, if timetable cuts are to be applied, there is a risk that the routes will be affected”, clarifies Joan Herrera.
“These time cuts do not guarantee a lower water consumption, since, if there are breaks in the pipes, it would be worse”, he adds. The Barcelona area, after the drought of 2007-2008, consumes 105 liters per person per day for domestic use (less than the 100 liters recommended by the WHO).
The Generalitat requires municipalities to prepare actions for the emergency phase; and among the measures they can resort to are “pressure reductions or timed supply cuts” (according to the special plan approved in January 2020). Even, in extreme cases, recourse could be had to “the temporary suspension of the provision of the supply service”, says this document. The 64 municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants had until June 2020 to present their plans against the drought. However, only 42% (27) have approved it; nine of which have not yet presented it (Calafell, Cerdanyola, Cornellà, Esparreguera, Figueres, Molins, Ripollet, Valls and Viladecans), 11 have obtained an unfavorable assessment from the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and 17 are in process
The drought decree validated this week by Parliament establishes considerable fines for municipalities that do not present these plans, which has caused unrest in some of these municipalities. “The intention of the decree is not to sanction, but to dissuade them from doing their duties”, says Councilor Teresa Jordà.
The rains of the last few weeks have not allowed the level of the reservoirs to recover and have only served to slow down the agonizing decline in reserves. To leave behind the drought situation and recover normality, “it would be necessary for them to continuously fall about 500 l/m2” at the headwaters of the rivers; that is, everything that rains in a year in the Barcelona region. At this rate, “if it doesn’t rain at all between April and May, or it rains very little, we could enter an emergency towards the end of August or the beginning of September”, they say to the ACA.
Eloi Badia, vice-president of Ecology of the Metropolitan Area, sees with concern that many municipalities, in the alert phase, have been far exceeding the allocations set by the Government (250 liters for this phase). For this reason, he believes it is necessary to know the consumption of all the municipalities and to undertake urgent actions in those that are far from meeting the Government’s requirements. “The allocations for all uses are now 230 liters per person per day, and in Barcelona we are at 170 litres, while many municipalities are above this figure”, he points out to request decisive action from the Government. Badia says that “in a few days” the metropolitan municipalities that have not presented the drought plan will have it ready.
The Generalitat guarantees the supply mainly through the reservoirs, from the two desalination plants (el Prat and Blanes) and regenerated reused water at the facilities of the Prat de Llobregat treatment plant. It is not ruled out that new emergency works could be introduced, although ACA spokesmen are cautious, pending a summit with political parties next Friday. ACA sources point out that in the short term it is not possible to expand the production of desalinated water. The process is progressing to build a new desalination plant in Tordera that should be active before 2027 (60 hm3), although the maximum possible acceleration is being called for. In addition, a fourth desalination plant is planned in Foix, but in a more distant horizon. And it is planned to double the regenerated water.
The ability to maneuver to deal with the drought is running out and that is why one of the main weapons is increasing the reuse of Llobregat water. The regenerated flow that is poured into the lower section of the Llobregat to be reused has doubled (it is now 1,200 l/s). How is it done? The water from the El Prat treatment plant undergoes additional treatment in a regenerating plant (to provide potable water) and is pumped upstream until it is discharged at the height of Molins de Rei, so that it is diluted to Llobregat and can be made potable in Sant Joan Despí, from where they are incorporated into the supply network.
Sources from Agbar indicate that with the new actions underway (making the Llagosta potable, using more regenerated water for irrigation…) it is not enough (“we can’t stay here”) and they reiterate their proposal in favor of to massively regenerate the waters of the lower section of the Besòs with Next Generation funds, through the large project presented to the Government and valued at around 1.5 billion euros.
Obtaining regenerated water continuously is the desired option. If more regeneration water, more desalination and more drinking water are achieved, 180 hm3 of water would be available, say company sources. It would be the way not to depend on the rain, which is unpredictable, to guarantee the supply.
The Generalitat has not announced any extraordinary emergency work in the drought decree validated by Parliament. The ACA justifies this by saying that “any work or investment in infrastructure requires that it be included in the approved hydrological planning and that its funding is allocated and guaranteed, which cannot be done in a decree law”.
Wide sectors claim that the drought is not entirely to blame for the situation; which is also influenced by the lack of administrative agility and the lack of investment since 2008. ACA sources reply that, following the drought of 2008, this body undertook investments that left a debt of 1.5 billion euros . “And this led to having to make a plan to stabilize and repay this debt, which was finally wiped out in 2018. During the years 2010-2017 priority had to be given to the repayment of the debt”, they argue.
