If between now and the summer it does not rain and a lot in Spain, and particularly in Catalonia, we are going to have a hard time. In view of the already notable scarcity of water in the swamps together with the decreased flow of the rivers, for some time now our rulers, to heal themselves, have launched trial balloons in order to prepare ourselves for the catastrophes that are coming and that they have not done nothing -or almost nothing- to avoid. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Catalonia loses 24% of its drinking water from the distribution networks. An atrocity.
What awaits us, they are already warning us, will go by restrictions, persecution of the unsuspecting and exemplary fines for offenders… and thirst, a lot of thirst. A thirst shared -or not- with the millions of tourists who this summer could arrive, despite all the evils that they attribute to us, to a historic fill.
The abandonment of the countryside is one of the main evils that will determine our uncertain future. Empty Spain is a metaphor for the emptiness that we all carry inside. In the past, peasants paid landowners to gain access to their forests in order to appropriate firewood, among other things. And in doing so, along with their herds of goats and sheep, they cleaned them up, thus avoiding out-of-control fires.
Starting in the sixties of the last century, coinciding with the accelerated flight of people from the villages to the big cities, the forests remained neglected, abandoned to their fate, meat for huge fires, often caused by deranged arsonists or ruthless speculators. And all that was missing was the effects of global warming to put us at the gates of an emergency that this summer could wreak havoc on the economy, agriculture, tourism and our homes.
What if he saw it coming? Of course. But nothing, or almost nothing, has been done to prevent it, since the administrations on duty always put other priorities before others, some of them based on pure fantasy. Already in 2019, during the first week of July, the Generalitat firefighters extinguished no less than 213 forest and agricultural vegetation fires. As expected, forest owners demanded incentives for the extraction of wood to regulate and maintain the forests in good condition.
In 2020, the Government ordered the dismantling of the 48 watchtowers that were in the Catalan forests, which would be replaced by cameras, a decision that, without prior notice, affected 96 watchmen and their families. It is clear that a camera cannot act as people who know the mountain like the back of their hand, or as herds cleaning the undergrowth that contributes so much to spreading the fires that are calcining our forests. As of today, the Generalitat, filed by Brussels, lacks a water management plan.
And, on top of that, there has been a political disagreement that threatens to prevent reaching an agreement that could guarantee us the water supply to our homes for the next few months. You can live without electricity or gas, but not without water, the source of life. So what do we do?
It is a mystery that does not seem to worry our rulers too much, so busy they are in their endless and fruitless senseless scuffles. At this point, that little word with which Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez finishes off his The colonel has no one to write to him sounds with increasing force. In other words, if what we want are solutions, we better wait sitting down. That or vote with your head in the round of elections that begins on 28-M, that’s what democracy is about… and the water supply. Country!
