The Government has finally declared a drought emergency and announced a series of restrictions that will affect almost six million Catalans who receive water from the Ter and Llobregat reservoirs. Storage has dropped to less than 16% of capacity and only then have the restrictive mechanisms been put in place.
The drought that has dragged on for forty months presented itself to us like an unusual postcard in which the bowels of the swamps exhibited images of old churches and houses buried by the waters for generations. President Aragonès and councilor Mascort presented the inevitable measures that will change citizens’ habits and affect industry, farmers, ranchers, the tourism sector and all economic activity.
The drought did not enter the political debate because it was hoped that a few days of rain would alleviate the emergency due to the “new climate reality”. Lack of foresight.
It was time to get down to the arena of specific issues. It will be the management of the ordinary things that affect and worry people that will mark the agenda of the electoral discourse. We have dedicated more than ten years to what we wanted Catalonia to be and not to responsibly administer the country where more than eight million people live.
Investments in infrastructure have been low due to insufficient State budgets, but also due to poor management by the Generalitat. What has the Government done in recent years to improve the water supply? And to repair the pipelines through which so many thousands of liters are lost? The last major investment was made by the Montilla government, which opened the Prat desalination plant in 2009, which produces 24% of the water consumed in the metropolitan area.
The drought is not the responsibility of any government. But the prevention of its effects does form part of its competences. The amnesty or the political future of Catalonia cannot hide the shortcomings that are emerging in a country that has focused its energies on how it should be instead of managing as best as possible what is. The PISA report on education, the Barcelona airport, the straits in which the health sector works do not depend on Madrid.
