Very critical view on the management of the drought crisis by the administrations that was issued yesterday by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce in the presentation of the study From the drought to the water transition 2040, which was prepared by the cabinet of economic studies of the entity. The Chamber attributes the lack of investments and planning by governments to the fact that it has not been possible to deal with the current situation of extreme drought, which is why it would be necessary to advance ten years in the planned planning for the water transition.
Among the keys to managing the drought with guarantees, according to the study, it is vital to interconnect the networks of the Tarragona Water Consortium (CAT), which manages the water of the Ebre River, with those of Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATL). “It would be the most practical option”, assured Eloi Planes, vice-president of the Chamber. It is a feasible option, both in terms of execution and the contribution it would make to the creation of a networked system, understood as a one-off, multidirectional resource for emergency situations. It would be based on the surplus available with respect to the provision of the Ebro mini-transfer concession towards the CAT, of 4 cubic meters of water per second.
“Society very quickly forgot the warning that came to us with the drought of 2008”, said Planes. Until 2009, the Generalitat had made a considerable investment to alleviate the drought, but from that year “investments fell sharply”, pointed out Alícia Casart, director of the study cabinet of infrastructures It went from 6,000 to 870 million invested and the contributions for the desalination plants disappeared. Those items that have now reappeared with 2,437.7 million euros of investment forecast in the current crisis landscape. If these new dynamics are not generated, the study shows that in 2025 the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona will not be able to face its water deficit if the current episode of drought persists.
Catalonia chose not to invest in key infrastructure, such as desalination plants and regeneration projects, as other countries such as Israel, the United States in California, Singapore and even the Spanish region of Murcia have done. The second drought crisis, therefore, according to the Chamber, “forces us to rethink the relationship with water” and the challenge of the water transition must be addressed so that it “marks the way towards a more efficient management and respectful”.
The water transition must culminate in 2030, according to the analyses. The key, the study cites, is the new water reuse system from the Besòs river, similar to the one already operating in the Llobregat, a project that was not defined in the planning of the Catalan Water Agency and which , at the Chamber’s discretion, “should be executed with the highest priority”.
As a result of the lack of investment during the last decade, 80.7% of the Catalan gross value added (GVA) has been exposed to the drought, since a large part of the Catalan production system is located in the basins internal The highest consumption takes place in the agriculture and livestock sector, which spends 80.7%.
The study raises the need to advance and update the forecasts of the Generalitat, since it places March 2025 as the date expected for the total exhaustion of conventional water resources. The formula they propose to cover this now uncontrolled emergency and avoid more serious problems would be to promote additional actions to those already underway, such as for example the increase in the contribution of the Baix Llobregat regeneration plant or the expansion of the water treatment plant of Besòs
The Chamber of Commerce considers the restrictions imposed by the Administration on certain industries to be unrealistic. “Reductions of 25% that carry very serious implications” for production capacity and survival. For this reason, they claim a more realistic option of reducing consumption by 5%.
Although the study acknowledges that the great water transition has already begun and that until 2023 the supply of desalinated water from the Llobregat and Tordera plants has evolved, the Chamber claims similar infrastructures pending implementation worth 5.2 billion.
Companies, according to the study, would be willing to face a water transition process with advances in water reuse and the application of innovative processes that replace conventional resources. For this reason, they say, it is necessary to apply research, development, innovation and digitization policies for the water cycle and sectoral plans to save water consumption, with solutions available on the market and the support of Administration, “which should provide incentives and compensations”.
