Gerard Melgar Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Monday, February 5, 2024-12:38

  • Drought The Government confirms that it will take desalinated water on ships from Sagunto to Catalonia

  • Generalitat Catalonia declares a drought emergency starting this Friday for six million people

The water from the

Sagunto desalination plant

(Valencia) will arrive by

boat at the port of Barcelona

starting in June if the

drought

situation in Catalonia remains at current levels.

This was announced by the third vice president of the Government,

Teresa Ribera

, and the Minister of Climate Action of the Generalitat,

David Mascort

, after the meeting they held this morning in Barcelona.

"We will go to

Sagunto

or wherever it is necessary, but it is a specific solution for strategic equipment that may be in an emergency situation, it is not the solution for the

drought ," the

councilor

stressed

. It is estimated that each ship would transport about 20,000 cubic meters of water.

Three months ago, the Catalan Executive already pointed out the possibility of having to resort to tankers in the face of the current episode of drought, which began 40 months ago with the lack of rain. Without specifying what the origin would be, although there was also speculation with Palma de Mallorca or Murcia, the Government had confirmed in recent weeks that it would have the

port of Barcelona

prepared to be able to carry out these operations.

In the last major drought in the region, that of 2007-2008, less severe than the current one and which ceased thanks to the spring rains of the second year, a plan was already launched to transport desalinated water through ships to the Catalan capital, to whose port two ships from Tarragona and Marseille (France) arrived. The rainfall made it possible to cancel a device in which the port of Almería was also going to be used.

Tordera II and Foix

The meeting between Ribera and Mascort also discussed the expansion of the

Tordera desalination plant

, in Blanes (Girona), and the construction of a new plant near the

Foix

River basin , in the province of Barcelona. Both infrastructures will be financed by the Government with European funds in the form of credit and will be operational in 2028 and 2029 respectively.

The meeting between both leaders took place four days after the Government decreed the entry into an

emergency phase

of a large part of the province of Barcelona and Gerona, the area supplied with water by the

Ter-Llobregat system

and which is inhabited by six million people, that is, three quarters of the Catalan population.

With the water reserves of the reservoirs at historic lows, a total of 239 localities have been affected since last Friday by the new restrictions of the special regional drought plan. Among other requirements, water consumption is limited to a maximum of 200 liters per inhabitant per day and its use in agricultural (80%), livestock (50%) or industrial (25%) activities is also reduced. In the western half of the region, most of the basins depend on the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, an organization attached to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.