The Barcelona region, large areas of Girona and the Costa Brava are in emergency due to drought. The Ter and Llobregat reservoirs cover only 15.8% of their maximum capacity (97.8 hm), the lowest level in their history. A total of 204 municipalities and 5.9 million people are subject to various limitations on water use. Among them, the 25% restrictions for the industry, the prohibition of filling or refilling swimming pools or the veto on the irrigation of parks and gardens. And the reduction of water pressure in various municipalities is about to be announced. But how did we get here?
The first reason for the emergency is obviously the lack of precipitation in a system heavily dependent on reservoirs. The internal basins of Catalonia are experiencing the most serious drought since 1916, the first year for which records are available. The rain “stopped falling” in September 2020, according to Xavier Altava, technician at the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya. The meteorological drought emerged in the spring of 2021 and has not stopped worsening since then (with the exception of the small respite in May and June 2023). Of the last 40 months, 31 have been dry or very dry, two have been normal and seven have been wet. 810 mm would be needed to compensate for what has not rained (slightly more than what used to fall in this area in a year). “The projections that were made about the decrease in precipitation for the middle of the century have been brought forward. And it has caught us by surprise,” says David Saurí, professor of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “We are not prepared for a drought of more than three years, especially with this duration, magnitude and intensity. It is evidence that climate change is here,” adds Saurí.
In recent years, the hydraulic infrastructures planned to respond to the deficits in water resources in the internal basins of Catalonia have not been executed, something that was already detected decades ago. During the so-called decade of investment drought, which covers the entire period 2010-2017, there have hardly been any investments with the ordinary budgets of the Generalitat.
The large hydraulic works were forgotten or were postponed after the drought of 2007-2008, especially between 2011-2017, when the investment of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) plummeted.
During those years, almost all the income that the ACA obtained from the collection of the water fee (paid by the user) was used to pay off the debt contracted due to investments during the drought as well as to repay the debt accumulated from previous years, all this in application of a stabilization plan.
The attention of the Generalitat was focused above all on the privatization of the Generalitat’s public company that provides water to the municipalities (Aigües Ter-Llobregat: ATL), given in concession to Acciona and later reverted by the courts.
The large hydraulic infrastructures planned in 2010 to increase water resources did not materialize. The first planning cycle (2009-2015) provided for two more desalination plants, apart from the one in El Prat: a second in Blanes (Tordera II) and another in Cunit (Foix). The two scheduled desalination plants fell by the wayside.
The works were not executed; and, furthermore, in the second cycle of hydrological planning (2016-2021) these same infrastructures “disappeared” from the plans. Everything was left up to what was decided in the state hydrological plan.
And finally, in the recent third planning cycle (2022-2027), with the drought rearing its head, the Tordera II desalination plant was incorporated. Now, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has committed to financing these two desalination plants (Tordera II and Cubelles/Foix) with Next Generation loans that the Generalitat must repay, which will involve “cost recovery” and that, therefore, the They will end up paying in the water bill.
However, the philosophy of cost recovery of investments in hydraulic works (provided for in the European water framework directive) has been taken to the extreme in Catalonia, so that finally the works are paid for by the user in the water bill, in the opinion of several experts.
Manuel Hernández, who directed the Catalan Water Agency during the 2007-2008 drought, maintains that the principle of cost recovery established by the EU does not say that financing is 100% borne by the user. That is why he believes that there should also be contributions from the ordinary budgets of the Generalitat (to demonstrate this commitment to the basic water service), “as is done with railways, the equation or healthcare.”
And in this sense, he believes that nothing prevents the Generalitat from signing a program contract with the ACA to finance its budget. Other voices also see it as “exaggerated” for administrations to say “let the user pay.”
The only relevant hydraulic works carried out in the Barcelona region since the last great drought (2007-2008) are those programmed by the tripartite (El Prat desalination plants and the regenerated El Prat wastewater station, which discharges its treated and pre-potable flow in the Llobregat near Molins de Rei to be reused).
Both have been providential in facing the drought, and have allowed us to delay the entry into emergency for about 15 months. They provide 58% of the water consumed in the Barcelona area (the other 42% is water from the five large Ter and Llobregat reservoirs and from wells). They were mostly financed with EU funds.
“One of the serious mistakes in all this time has been not having built the Tordera II desalination plant. In the drought of 2008 we already detected that the one in El Prat was not enough. In addition, there was an item in the budgets of the Generalitat 2023”, complains Carles Conill, spokesperson of the Observatori de la Sequera and president of the environment committee of the College of Civil Engineers.
According to the new forecast (agreed between Madrid and the Government), the Tordera II desalination plant project (287?million) will be put out to tender in April of this year, construction will begin next year and the work will conclude in 2028; and Cubelles/Foix (180 million) would begin in 2026 and end in 2029.
Various social sectors have demanded to recover the old project of connecting the Consorci d’Aigües de Tarragona network (water from the Ebro) to the metropolitan network of Barcelona (started in 2008 but paralyzed when the rains arrived), although only to resort to him in emergencies. Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency, raised, among others, this option last year in the intergovernmental drought commission, considering that it was the “emergency action that could provide a greater flow of water.” However, he admitted the risk of “social rejection” due to the opposition of the Ebre Defense Platform. “All networks must be connected if necessary, in one direction and another. It is absurd to have a country with isolated and territorialized networks,” says Hernández.
The four professional associations (Enginyers de Camins, Industrials, Agrònoms and Economistes) have the same opinion. On the other hand, President Pere Aragonés has clearly rejected this idea; and the Minister of Climate Action, David Mascort, argues that with the new desalination plants, the regenerated waters and the new catchments in the Besòs, the drought will be able to be weathered without that connection with the Ebro. His argument is that the link with the network of the Ebro “is not a solution for this drought.” Anna Barnadas, secretary of Acció Climàtaica, has indicated that the Government does not see the connection of the Ebro mini-transfer as viable, among other reasons because “it is a fixed structure” and that could result in “more water being derived from the Ebro than necessary.” ” at specific times.
Water management rarely appears on the political agenda in Catalonia. It only emerges when the level of the reservoirs drops dramatically and administrations are forced to organize possible domestic restrictions. And then comes the rush. But when it rains and the reservoirs fill, forgetfulness covers everything with the mantle of oblivion. This is what has happened repeatedly. But it has already become clear that the Barcelona region cannot rely on the natural resources of climatology (rainwater) as the main guarantee of supply based on flows from river reservoirs.
Local administrations have avoided water rate increases in recent years for fear of unpopularity and the crisis, but the result is that important investments in modernization and efficiency of the networks have been left pending, which suffer losses and leaks of water. water. Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), Reyes encouraged those responsible for the water companies in Catalonia a few days ago to increase water rates to face the growing costs of this service. Approximately 40% of the 204 municipalities in the Ter and Llobregat region consume on average more than 200 liters per person per day for all uses (December data), the maximum threshold now allowed by the special drought plan. The ACA has opened about 100 files to municipalities that have exceeded the allowed limit; but after the resolution proposals they have the option to present allegations; and there have still been no firm sanctions.
Narcís Prat, emeritus professor of Ecology at the UB, believes that there is a long way to go to improve savings and efficiency in water supply. It proposes that urbanizations (large consumers, especially seasonal, that deplete aquifers and dry up sources) be equipped with systems to capture rainwater and that systems be encouraged with public aid to reuse flows used in the home (kitchen, sink and showers). ) to be reused in the toilet tank so as not to waste drinking water unnecessarily. Dante Maschio, spokesperson for the Aigua és Vida platform, considers it key to move from managing supply to managing and containing demand. In practice, this means curbing the demand of large consumers (hotels and expansive urban planning) and putting a stop to planning that is not based on “grow, grow, grow”, that adjusts to limited resources and need. to respect the ecological flows of the rivers.
