Teresa Jordà , Minister of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, points to the PSC as responsible for the failure of the parties’ water summit held on Friday at the request of the Government to agree on measures against the drought. “It is intolerable and extremely irresponsible that, because of a tactical question before municipal elections around the corner, no agreement is wanted”, he says. “There was a will to load it!”, he rivets.
Why has there been no agreement? Is it bad news?
We come to have a document prepared ready to be approved. The only thing missing was to set a date for when the sanctions could be applied to municipalities that did not comply with the established water allocations.
What went wrong?
The groups agreed that the application date (of these sanctions) would be July 1. We had moved our position, because it should start now. But the position of a single group did not allow for an agreement. I have the feeling that the political class has not yet understood what moment we are at. These droughts will repeat themselves.
Why does the Government want to impose sanctions on municipalities that do not present an emergency plan against drought or exceed the fixed water allocations?
The drought decree that we approved seeks to facilitate emergency action by municipalities in the face of drought. Only one article out of 13 talks about these sanctions. Our vocation is not to sanction anyone to collect four cents.
So why wear?
It’s about dissuading them and putting some pressure on them, because tackling the drought problem requires better use of water by everyone. We said we are willing to extend compliance deadlines by sending notices. But if the municipalities don’t do their homework, we need some tool for them to do it.
The municipal entities also ask that they withdraw…
There must be responsibility. We cannot afford the luxury of there being municipalities that do not do their homework, or that there are water leaks. There are already activities subject to water restrictions, such as industry and the agricultural and livestock sector, which provides us with food, and we are asking the citizen for collaboration. Not acting is a grievance for the municipalities that have done their homework. This cannot be a tactical and electoral debate.
Large municipalities of the second metropolitan crown ask to lift the current veto and be able to fill public swimming pools in summer, invoking that on those dates they are climate refuges.
Yes, this is an issue that we will fix by modifying the Special Drought Plan (2020) where the restriction was. It was one of the matters about to be signed. But we will make it possible; Like the other agreements.
The Socialists ask that the municipalities be helped to solve their deficiencies, instead of being sanctioned.
These aids were provided for in the agreement. It included an accompaniment to the municipalities to solve this type of problem. We are willing to give that margin, but being aware that everyone must do their part.
How are the extraordinary investments provided for in the pre-agreement?
We promise to apply them as if we had signed it. We agree on this 99% of those who were at the table at the summit. We will advance the works that we can. What cannot be is that electoral interests take precedence. We are talking about the most important drought that the country has suffered and the climate emergency. There has been no agreement because they wanted to point out that the group that the Government supports is 33 deputies.
How many municipalities fail to comply with the obligation imposed by the decree (not exceeding the allocation of 250 liters per person per day in the alert phase or lacking emergency plans against drought for those with more than 20,000 inhabitants)?
For different reasons, some 200 municipalities do not comply with it, among those that have the obligation.
Will we have domestic supply cuts for essential services this summer in the Barcelona region?
Despite the fact that the drought we are suffering from is extremely severe, the Government has been working for a long time so that this does not have to happen.
This decree of drought of the Government places the accent on the responsibility of the municipalities; There are those who accuse the Government of avoiding its responsibilities…
I deny the major. The Government has been working on this matter continuously, with the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua, precisely to guarantee the supply.
Have you really done your homework?
Preventive action has been taken, well in advance, so that no citizen or economic activity is subject to water restrictions. The production capacity of the desalination and water regeneration plants has been expanded. Between 2022 and 2023 we will generate more than 200 additional hm3 of water that go to the supply. The water produced is equivalent to the entire flow that fits in the Sau and Sant Ponç reservoirs. Thus, we have delayed the entry into an exceptional situation for about six months. Without these additional resources, if we had not issued the pre-alert and if we had not activated the desalination plants at maximum level, among other actions, we would have entered the exceptional phase six months ago in the Ter Llobregat area.
Will there be more water summits?
I am convinced; but the decree, for now, is serving us. We must take the Taula del Ter as a reference to create the Taula Nacional de l’Aigua. This is the model, where with rationality, everyone assumes the commitments and they are fulfilled. It should be the model to create the Taula Nacional de l’Aigua; and the political class should learn it. And we must approve a courageous and agreed investment plan.
Because?
This episode of drought will end one day or another; but experts tell us that another one like it may come in three years. We are in the greatest drought since 1905; and we have not applied more restrictions because a lot of previous work has been done.
So?
This should be the legislature in which the Government and the political forces are able to agree on investments so that we do not find ourselves in another situation of drought like this in the future, and so that, once and for all, we put ourselves OK. When this country has not cooperated we have not been able to get ahead. We wouldn’t be in this situation if everyone had done their jobs the way they were supposed to; or if in the previous drought, in 2008, it had not ended up raining.
The Col legi d’Enginers de Camins proposes to connect the supply networks of the Ter-Llobregat system with the networks of the Ebro (Tarragona or Segre) to guarantee the supply. What do you think?
This is not up for debate, at least by the Government or the Department.
The drought is also hitting agriculture. In Lleida they consider using crops that use less water.
The Agència Catalana de l’Aigua has met with the irrigation communities. They are the ones who produce food and we must accompany them in the best possible way. We have been working for some time on the modernization of irrigation systems, which is key to the efficiency of water use and, in addition, benefits the productivity of farmers. In the exceptional phase, in internal basins we are talking about a cut of 40%.
And do we have guarantees that what the drought decree says is really fulfilled?
The irrigation communities have this mandate and it is an extraordinarily responsible sector.
How do you assess the regeneration of the Besòs waters?
There is a lot of consensus that most of the investment should revolve around reclaimed water, beyond action on the expansion of the Tordera desalination plant, which we are going to put out to tender this year.
We change the subject. What do you think about the proposal to expand El Prat airport at sea?
It is a proposal that does not have consensus. I will not say that it cannot be held anywhere because it has been prepared by technicians. Regarding the matter of the airport, I refer to the agreement reached in the budgets, which is to create a work commission for the modernization of the airport.
You have said that, first of all, the protection of the Llobregat delta should be extended, with new areas for the protection of birds (Zepas), as claimed by the EU file against Spain. However, the employers of the agrarian industry, the PSC and the Parliament’s agriculture commission, in this case this past Thursday, the Parliament opposed new Zepas.
There are very conflicting interests, but we only have one country and in this country we only have three deltas, and they are unique. We have an obligation to cooperate. The Government, first, complies with the letter of summons from the EU; we have to comply with that.
Junts is now opposed in Parliament to expanding the Zepas, but the then Minister Damià Calvet supported him.
I think we should be consistent. The Government is the only one that has presented a debate in the territory with a strategy for the Llobregat delta. And we understand it as a system that integrates the preservation of natural spaces and agricultural spaces, the sufficiency and quality of water masses, and the containment of urbanization processes, something that someone still dreams of.
The motion approved in Parliament is surprising.
In fact, what has been approved (on Thursday) goes against European standards and calls into question what experts and officials who work for the Generalitat say. A technical issue cannot be turned into a political issue, even if the local elections are a year and a half away. It is unfortunate that in a context like this, these approaches are made.
I remember that you did not like that the Socialists raised the expansion of the airport or the fourth ring road in the budget negotiations….
I would have liked more if they had talked about water or how we set natural environments as a red line in the politics of this country, or how we better protect ourselves from economic and social vulnerability to the effects of climate change. It is evident that we have a delta of the Ebro that suffers the regression; or how we protect our coastline.
What do you propose?
Given the evidence of climate change and what is happening on the planet, we should discuss how we adapt and how we mitigate the effects of climate change. For this reason, this Ministry and this Government will deploy the Canvi Climà tic law, approved in Parliament, in 2023. I want to see if those were statements or now real given the situation in which we find ourselves. Faced with climate change, there are debates that must be held. Perhaps the tourism model must change or we must transform it. In a context of climate emergency and extreme drought, I personally did not like the fact that the debate to approve budgets focused on these issues –although it is something we have already agreed on.
