Catalonia delays the drought emergency despite the fact that reserves are already down 16%

The Generalitat of Catalonia, chaired by Pere Aragonès, has once again delayed the date to declare the drought emergency even though the reservoirs in the internal hydrographic basins have dropped below 16% of their capacity (15.99%), the threshold established to activate the most severe restrictions.

The Executive has ruled out activating the harshest scenario next week in the municipalities that depend on these reservoirs, as Aragonès declared on Monday in an interview for

.

“Probably next week.

When we reach 16% of the reserves,” said the

.

Government sources explain to this newspaper that, although the 18 units of the internal basins are at 15.99%, the emergency will be declared when "the Ter-Llobregat system reaches 16%, 100 cubic hectometers", that is, when the five reservoirs of Sau, Susqueda, La Baells, Llosa del Cavall and Sant Pons lower that volume of water.

These are the reservoirs that directly supply the Barcelona area.

“Due to the calculations that have been made, the emergency will not arrive next week,” they stated.

It is not the first time that the Government clarifies or takes a turn

in the measures that must be adopted due to the drought.

Already in November, they designed the pre-emergency state that was not included in the Special Drought Plan (PES), in which almost six million inhabitants of the Barcelona and Girona area will remain for a few more weeks.

In December they also finally decided to hold on in the pre-emergency phase and, now in January, they delayed their decision again while waiting for rainfall that could stretch resources.

They have also had to reverse some of the modifications that the Government approved last week, such as the closure of gym showers and the irrigation of federated sports centers, after the sector rebelled against this decision for not have been taken into account.

The Government insists that it wants to avoid as much as possible the harshest measures that can harm the economy the most.

The municipalities that consume the most

More than half of Catalonia lacks water.

There have now been 39 uninterrupted months without a regular rainfall regime, which has left the capacity of the reservoirs in the internal hydrographic basins at 15.99%.

The affected towns will not be able to exceed the consumption of 200 liters per inhabitant per day once the most catastrophic scenario foreseen in the PES is activated, although there are already 37 towns in Empordà, Baix Camp and Baix Llobregat that are in this difficult phase.

According to December data from the Generalitat, 90 of the 202 municipalities in the area of ​​influence of Barcelona and Girona exceed the water barrier that will be established in emergency;

106 are below the limit and six have not provided data in the last three months.

Torrent (Girona) is the municipality that consumes the most water with 500 liters;

It is followed by Begur (Girona) with 495 and Santa Susanna (Barcelona) with 454. Although three towns without updated data far exceeded the previous ones in September 2023: l'Espunyola (Barcelona) with 903;

Montclar (Barcelona) with 2,908 and Montmayor (Barcelona) with 962. In the current limit of the 210 liters of the pre-emergency scenario, 117 meet the consumption and 79 exceed the water volume.

The Government wanted to make it clear that some of this data is “partial” because there is a lack of information on the volumes delivered by some of the declining supplying entities that operate in the municipality.

Among the towns that use the least water are Pinós (Lleida) with 70 liters, Riner (Lleida) with 75;

and Viver i Serrateix (Barcelona) with 85. Of the six that have not presented data in the last quarter, three met the limit established in September: Navès (Lleida) with 49 liters, Vilalba Sasserra (Barcelona) with 138;

and Abrera (Barcelona) with 155. In addition, 18 of the 37 municipalities that are already in the emergency phase and, which are fed by Muga and Riudecanyes, exceed 200 liters of consumption per inhabitant per day.

While 17 are below this threshold and two have not presented data.

In this list, the towns that consume the most are three belonging to Girona: Pedret i Marzà (Girona) with 551 liters;

Vilamacolum (Girona) with 478;

and Peralada with 447 (Girona).

The municipalities that spend the least water are Fortià (Girona) with 102;

l'Armentera (Girona) with 108;

and Cabanas (Girona) with 112.

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