Aragonès presses with an anti-drought investment of 1,045 million to approve the accounts in Catalonia

After more than 40 months suffering from a rainfall regime much below average, the Parliament held this Tuesday the first monographic plenary session to address drought and climate change.

The session will conclude this Thursday with concrete measures to mitigate this lack of water.

With a Government in a minority and harassed on a multitude of fronts this last year of his mandate, Pere Aragonès has announced an investment of 1,045 million euros in the budgets, which are still up in the air, to make efficient use of water, combat drought and improve irrigation.

“It is more important than ever that they are approved,” said the

The PSC and Junts have accused the Government of lack of diligence but have offered a helping hand to overcome the water crisis.

Aragonès has stated that the Government has set the goal of building enough infrastructure so that Catalonia is self-sufficient without having to wait for water from the sky.

“If it doesn't rain, there will be months and complicated moments,” he warned without specifying further.

In defense of his Government, Aragonès has stated that he cannot be accused of “lack of foresight and carelessness” because if the supply had not increased, the emergency would have already been declared a year ago.

“We are paying for the decisions of the past due to indebtedness and misunderstood austerity,” he stated in a double message to PSC and Junts for the indebtedness of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA).

The speech by Aragonès and his advisor David Mascort has irritated PSC and Junts who have accused him of lack of self-criticism.

Salvador Illa, leader of the opposition, has accused the Government of not having done “its homework.”

“Don't give it any more thought.

“We are where we are because they have done it wrong,” said the PSC leader.

“We must desalinate and reuse like so many countries do.

And a little more humility.

The water comes from Sagunto,” he told the counselor in reference to the boats that the Ministry will charter from the Valencian Community.

Illa has also disgraced the counselor that he had said that he felt his own anti-drought plan was like a straitjacket.

“You have approved it.

"You can't say that."

All in all, Illa is willing to approve Aragonès' accounts - "It will be very difficult for me to vote against it," he said this Tuesday on TV-3 - and therefore to include 1,000 million in infrastructure investment.

In any case, the socialists reproach the Government for having only spent 100 of the 700 million contemplated in the 2023 budgets. Deputy Salvador Vergès (Junts) has criticized that the Government has failed to comply with its proposal to increase the capacity of the water treatment plant this December. Kisses 0.3 to 2.5 cubic hectometers and has claimed to have powers in the two basins of Catalonia to make decisions.

The Plenary will continue this Thursday with the vote on the resolution proposals in which ERC explicitly rejects the interconnection of basins and is open to "reviewing and singling out" the restrictions contemplated in the drought plan (PES) to guarantee the sustainability of the small and medium

.

Socialists and Junts also propose relieving the tourism sector by allowing swimming pools to be filled.

The PSC is committed to allowing them to be filled in municipalities where consumption is below the thresholds set by the plan and in the rest of the cases, allowing the use of treated seawater.

Junts in this case suggests that those affected receive subsidies if it is the only alternative they have.

The commons and the CUP have agreed to demand more than ever the need for a change in the productive model to banish projects such as the Hard Rock or the expansion of the Barcelona airport.

“Not if I am more concerned about the deniers or the

,” said Jéssica Albiach, from the Commons, who asks to paralyze projects that involve mobilizing more water resources above 100 liters per person per day in clear reference to Hard Rock.

Anti-capitalists also ask to distribute efforts and apply restrictions to tourism so that the primary sector does not assume most of the cost.

Far from the PSC and Junts model, the CUP proposes a moratorium on new swimming pools and prohibiting the irrigation of golf courses with well, river, regenerated or purified water.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on