Purines, hydrocarbons and, now, pesticides. Pollutants accumulate in the aquifers of rural Catalonia

Pollution has once again played a role in Lleida's water.

25 municipalities of Les Garrigues, a region whose economic engine is agriculture, were left without being able to consume drinking water for five days after the Public Health Agency detected high levels of herbicides.

The cuts affected some 20,000 residents since last Friday, who had to buy bottled water even for cooking.

Sources from the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and the Climate Action Department of the Generalitat explain that the main hypothesis is that the massive contamination was caused by products used earlier this month to mitigate the effects of frost in the fields. fruit.

The Síndic de Greuges (Ombudsman of the Catalan people) has announced an ex officio investigation to investigate the causes of the leaks in a territory historically affected by agricultural, livestock and industrial pollution.

Catalonia is still stuck in bad waters and is far from meeting the European decontamination goals for 2027, experts warn.

Apart from the domestic difficulties, this latest episode has highlighted the widespread problem that the community has with contaminated water in a climate emergency context.

According to community criteria, 63% of river water bodies are in "poor condition", and seven out of 10 aquifers are contaminated, mainly by slurry from the meat industry, according to a technical report attached to the Management Plan of River Basin District 2022-2027 of the ACA.

In the document, the technicians alarm about the historical contamination of the aquifers and warn that the situation has not improved in two decades.

In July of last year, the same municipalities already cut off the tap due to a spill of hydrocarbons that affected the Seròs canal, again affected by pollution and that has ended up in the Utxesa reservoir, a reservoir built in 1914 in the basin of the Segre river.

The Government lifted the restrictions on Wednesday after verifying in the last analyzes that the pollutants had been reduced.

“This is a specific episode of 'diffuse contamination'.

The first investigations indicate that they were herbicides used during the frosts and that with the last rains they have been filtering into the groundwater and the river”, Agriculture sources detail.

The ban has caused inconvenience.

“It has affected the neighbors more than the merchants.

Some bars have had problems serving coffee.

But I, for example, have not stopped selling bottles of water”, Natalia pointed out by phone yesterday, from the Galician restaurant Casal So de Notre, in the tiny municipality of Aspa (Segrià), with just 200 inhabitants.

The situation also aroused the picaresque of some and the Mancomunitat d'Aigues de Les Garrigues, which manages the service, warned of a scam by false companies that offered to check the potability in homes.

This is not the first time that herbicides have left entire towns without water.

In 2016, 12,000 inhabitants of La Bisbal d'Empordà and Forallac (Girona) were left without drinking water due to another leak.

The crisis lasted more than a week and Caritas was even forced to distribute bottles to vulnerable families.

Already before, many towns in livestock production areas of central Catalonia have also suffered restrictions due to episodes.

The European Commission gave an ultimatum in June 2020 to Spain to face the shortcomings of Catalonia with contaminated soil.

Last July, the Generalitat again vetoed for four more the expansion and installation of new farms in 68 municipalities affected by slurry contamination.

“The Les Garrigues episode is a very clear case of what is happening not only in Lleida, but also in other places.

My feeling is that nothing is being done and that with the agricultural sector it will get worse and worse.

Pesticides continually end up in the river and a lot of water is taken from the flows (to irrigate)”, explains Narcís Prat, Emeritus Professor of Ecology at the University of Barcelona (UB).

Added to the contamination is the generalized lack of liquid.

Catalonia's water reserves are 30% lower than the average for the decade at this time.

Most of the territory is on pre-alert due to drought a few weeks before the irrigation season, a practice that, according to UNESCO, consumes around 70% of the liquid.

Roger Lloret, a retired chemist and agronomist who has spent more than his life studying Catalan waters, points out that rivers "carry everything" and believes that the future is not at all rosy.

"I am satisfied because it seems that finally what I warned about decades ago is being taken seriously," he says.

"But I am also very sad about the situation: we are suffering a group of problems that are adding up and will lead to a great crisis," says this chemist who for years collaborated as a judicial expert in the Environment Prosecutor's Office.

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