In a monographic debate in the Parliament of Catalonia on drought and climate change, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has repeatedly attributed the current crisis situation in relation to drought to the lack of investments by previous governments, And given the criticism he expects to receive from the opposition, he has assured that Catalonia would already have been in an emergency situation and with restrictions for a year if its executive had not intervened at the beginning of the legislature. In the last control session, both Junts and PSC have demanded that the Catalan president hold a Government summit with the parties to address this issue that the Palau de la Generalitat currently rejects.
Taking advantage of the debate, the president announced from the lectern of the Catalan Chamber that in the 2024 budgets, which have not yet been approved as a draft law in the Executive Council and which are in negotiation with the groups, the The Government plans to invest more than 1,045 million euros to alleviate the effects of the drought. To help the most affected sectors and invest in infrastructure and guarantee efficient use of water with the construction of desalination and regeneration plants, an improvement of the supply network in coordination with the local level and irrigation systems, he has detailed the head of the Catalan Executive. These are investments that within five years, according to the president, will allow "not to depend on rain and guarantee mouth water."
"In the drought, as the Government, we have had to bring the country up to date and do the work that had to be done and the lack of investments, whether due to the indebtedness of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) or a misunderstood austerity of other governments," said Aragonès, alluding to the executives led by Convergència starting in 2010, after the 2008 drought that was resolved thanks to the rain again, and the tripartite management, which left that indebted organization –Esquerra, his party, gave support to both. "Today we are paying the consequences of the drought of investments from previous years, of structures that had been deprogrammed and also of the way of understanding the water sector, key and strategic, as a dispensable one that did not have to be in the priorities and was could privatize," continued the head of the Catalan Executive, with the example of Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATL).
Faced with the predictable battery of reproaches from the opposition groups, Aragonès has been far-sighted and has put on the bandage before it is hurt: "We pay for decisions from the past. We cannot be accused of lack of foresight and carelessness," he concluded. . "Today's consequences are the result of past decisions," he later insisted, and then pointed out that "today's responsibilities belong to this government, we assume them fully, in their entirety."
Likewise, he highlighted that without the actions of his administration, which have included "unlocking investments and projects", Catalonia would have been in a year of restrictions and in an emergency situation. In this sense, the president has stated that since 2021 the Government has worked on a drought plan with a team of experts, they have accelerated investments and they have worked with city councils to improve "distribution at the local level, in many cases still deficient".
To avoid future crises, the Government's recipe is to "multiply the capacity to produce water and not depend on reservoirs" and rain. "Today more than 50% of the water, in the most populated areas of the country that receives supply from the Aigües Ter-Llobregat network, is from desalination plants and regeneration. Normally this indicator was below 15%," Aragonès stated in this regard. , who has warned that "if it doesn't rain, complex months will come" and "complex decisions" will have to be made. Likewise, he has demanded that the groups have a "vision of the future" and that the investments planned now be maintained even if it rains again and that environmental criteria in social and economic activities or in any initiative are understood as central and not as an accessory issue.
In the group round, the opposition leader and first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has demanded “more humility” from the Government. “If they have done it so well, why are we where we are?” Valencian.
The leader of the PSC has urged the Government and the Catalan Water Agency to "put the batteries in place at once", and has concluded that "Catalonia is not prepared at the level that would be necessary and this is the fault of the governments de Mas, Torra, Puigdemont and Aragonès. The result of ten years of process is that Catalonia is more dependent on water and energy".
From Junts, Albert Batet has called for “an urgent change of course in governance to confront the drought” and “abandon confrontation between administrations to promote collaboration.” But he has also criticized the PSC for its management in the previous drought, when José Montilla's government left the ACA “ruined”, with a debt of 1.5 billion.
In any case, socialists and post-convergents have shown the Government their willingness to “provide solutions” in a new “country summit” – which they have been asking for for weeks –, but they stressed the need to “not confront sectors” or “destroy the productive fabric.” of Catalonia, a demand shared by Ciudadanos, PP and Vox, but which was attacked by the commons and the CUP.
The groups that had registered and requested the holding of this debate, CUP and COMMONS, on the other hand, have demanded that the restrictions be extended to the tourism sector. The president of En Comú Podem, Jéssica Albiach, and the anti-capitalist spokesperson, Dani Cornellà, criticized Aragonès for paying for the construction of large projects even though they know that they are “absolute nonsense” because “they do not dare to say no to the lobbies.” and to other political forces.” Among these projects they mentioned the expansion of the airport, the Winter Games, the B-40, and, above all, the Hard Rock, which blocks the approval of the new Catalan budgets.
In this regard, the Government insisted that the agreement for the new accounts could be a reality "in the coming days" and that the recreational project is not "a stumbling block." But the PSC continues to demand that the president comply with the 2023 agreement, which requires him to approve the urban plan, while the commons, its other partner, put the Hard Rock as a red line. In any case, the Executive assures that it does not contemplate an electoral advance even if the 2024 budgets are not approved: “The legislature will run out.”
