The mayors of Alt Maresme demand that the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) comply with the commitments made to reuse the purified water – between 5 and 6 hm3 – from the treatment plant located in the municipality of Pineda de Mar and that inject into the river aquifers to avoid salinization of the collection wells. On the other hand, they show their fear that state of emergency 3 will be applied which, according to them, prioritizes that a large part of the water that the Maresme now consumes be diverted to the metropolitan area of Barcelona to the detriment of the region.
The mayors of Arenys de Mar, Canet, Malgrat de Mar, Palafolls, Pineda de Mar, Sant Cebrià de Vallalta, Sant Pol de Mar and Santa Susanna, after the recent meeting held with the director of the Catalan Water Agency, they have issued a "politically correct" statement drafted by ERC in which they avoid transcribing the claim signed by the majority of PSC and Junts mayors.
The councilors claim that in addition to the dependence on the Tordera River aquifer, which is currently the source of 60% of the drinking water consumed in the Alt Maresme, the remaining 40% comes from the Tordera desalination plant. If not, they urgently request that the ACA fulfill the commitment to promote the project to build a pipeline from the Pineda treatment plant to a point inside the Tordera riverbed. The ACA has committed to executing the project before autumn 2024, the mayors recall, which would mean an investment of more than two million euros.
The claimed work would allow the natural purification of the aquifers from which the majority of the populations of Alt Maresme are fed and would prevent the salinization of the collection wells, used above all by the agricultural sector.
In the political sphere, the mayors also demanded from the ACA that “the city councils that do their homework and comply with the restrictions” be taken into account and grievances are not imposed on those who disobey the rule. They regret that if municipalities that fail to comply with the drought decree are fined with “imperceptible sanctions”, it is encouraged that city councils prefer to assume the penalties rather than advance in restrictions and investments and that they “choose to pay the fines rather than restrict some services.”
