Facing the summer months without swimming pools as a result of the drought is a risk that hotels and campsites in Catalonia
They don't want to run.
After the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) stated last week that it was not allowed to buy drinking water regardless of its origin, the tourism sector is acquiring portable desalination plants in droves to save the summer season.
“It is an investment to be able to continue with the service.
If not, people are going to have to close,” argues the head of the company Ecosystems, one of the leaders in the sector where several hoteliers from the Costa Brava and the Costa Dorada have attended, such as those from Lloret del Mar (Girona). , to get one of these machines.
The Parliament will vote this Thursday in the drought plenary session on some resolutions that address its problem.
The desalination plants can produce around 50,000 liters per day.
They have a price that ranges between 50,000 and 150,000 euros and are intended for water purification, although they are also used for health tasks such as cleaning the decks of ships.
Ports are one of the main niches for companies in the sector.
However, the lack of rain that Catalonia has suffered for 40 months, which has made 2023 the second driest on record, has expanded the use of these portable desalination plants to hotels and campsites.
Given the impossibility of filling the pools or watering the gardens due to the restrictions established in the emergency phase, hoteliers have found in this alternative a solution to avoid further damage during the summer season, which begins in a few weeks.
In the current emergency phase of the Special Drought Plan (PES), declared on February 1 in 239 municipalities that represent 80% of the community's population, filling swimming pools is not allowed if they do not use salt water or if They are not registered in the census of sports facilities of the Generalitat (such as those in hospitals or residences. Nor does it contemplate the acquisition of water from other geographical points. The tight fence established over the Catalan tourism sector is what has led to requesting portable desalination plants four months ago, as stated by Ecosystems, which provides more than 4,000 water purification plants around the world. “We have been in the sector for more than 20 years and politicians have never gotten involved,” he comments. the head of the company, who assures that there are no legal problems of any kind and that, in any case, it is a viable solution for hotels and campsites that want to keep their doors open.
“We will continue providing the service and will satisfy all proposals,” he says.
Socialists and Junts 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 drought 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 problem that the sector faces is not the high demand from the desalination plants or putting the money out of their own pockets but rather the imbalances in the anti-drought plan that the Government approved in 2020, when ERC and Junts Per Catalunya shared the Catalan Executive.
Although the Generalitat has expressed its chest that thanks to the protocol the declaration of emergency has been delayed up to a year, doubts have also arisen about the PES, since it was drawn up based on the 2008 drought, the most serious so far. then, and a water shortage as drastic as the current one was not foreseen.
“We are tied hand and foot.
What we have done is read the fine print to try to relax some PES restrictions that do not seem entirely correct to us.
”, acknowledged on Monday the Climate Action advisor, David Mascort.
Precisely, Mascort addressed the discomfort of the tourism sector this Tuesday during his intervention in the plenary session on the drought in Parliament, where he left the door open to future modifications of the measures to adapt to the current water crisis.
“We must take into account that it was written in 2009. We are applying it now, but it is also true that we are going to see what things need to be adapted,” said the counselor, for whom the priority is to determine “in what way and how they will be opened.” the pools".
The reconditioning of the anti-drought plan is, for the Government, listening to the different actors to acclimatize the restrictions to the current circumstances, unexpected for the Catalan Executive chaired by Pere Aragonès, and for meteorological experts.
After being questioned about the use of portable desalination plants to fill hotel pools, Mascort did not deny that this alternative could take shape for the tourism sector, although he referred the possibility to the ACA guidelines and the environmental impact of the work.
“We only know the case of Lloret del Mar, but we have not received any specific proposal that allows us to position ourselves on the viability of the project,” explained the
Minister
of Climate Action during the plenary session, although he was in favor of studying this option in case. allowed more water to be introduced into the system.
In any case, portable desalination plants require an administrative cost concession, an authorization from the ACA and an environmental license that varies depending on the number of liters of seawater they need.
In addition, there is the potential challenge of how to limit the amount of waste, called brine, produced by these machines that ends up in the sea.
Mascort, who has always praised citizens' efforts to save water, also did not rule out the possibility that municipal pools could be filled if they are classified as climate shelters in the interview given to Catalan television.
This would be another exception to the current restriction of the emergency phase, which prohibits filling private, public and community pools.
He gave as an example in the case of a neighborhood where there are no spaces to shelter from the heat, such as a library.
“We could study that that pool could become a climatic refuge and could be filled,” explained the counselor, who recalled that licenses for individual pools are granted by city councils, which can sanction the owners if they exceed the established limits. for water consumption.
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