In 1995, President Jordi Pujol promoted the signing of a treaty that launched the Languedoc-Roussillon-Catalunya aqueduct (Rhône transfer), but the Minister of the Environment of the Popular Party (Isabel Tocino) said that the government was not contemplating any transfer. outside the national territory. Therefore, the project was put on hold.
In 2001, the head of the Basse Rhône Lenguadoc Consortium contacted members of Aznar's cabinet to whom he informed that President Chirac supported the project. The transfer from the Rhône would involve an annual transfer of 300 cubic hectometers of water, it would have a cost of 900 million euros, the price of water would be 0.35 euros/m3 and the works would be completed in 2007. But instead of the transfer, Aznar's executive preferred to launch the National Hydrological Plan (PHN).
However, Artur Mas carried out great activity between 2002 and 2014 to make the transfer a reality. In 2002 he presented to the central executive the project for a 316 kilometer aqueduct between Montpellier and the Ter water treatment plant, in Cardedeu. But this project was rejected again.
In 2006, with the PSOE in government, CiU reactivated its efforts to achieve the transfer, but the Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, once again rejected the project, since it prioritized the construction of desalination plants. In 2008, the president of the French region of Languedoc-Roussillon offered Rhône water to the president of the Generalitat, José Montilla, and he ruled out the transfer saying that it would not bring more water than what would be obtained with the desalination plants, that the It would not arrive until 2015, and its cost would be higher than that of desalinated water. The project was once again discarded, despite the fact that desalination required twice the energy consumption of the transfer.
In 2011, when Mas was president of the Generalitat, he reiterated his transfer proposal, highlighting that the Rhône had “impressive reserves” (three times more than the Ebro), although he recognized that the main difficulty of the transfer was that “it does not have a consensus on Spain, because neither PP nor PSOE want it.”
In 2014, the Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Arias Cañete, rescued the transfer from oblivion. The minister commissioned a report on the transfer, but was appointed European commissioner and left the ministry. The report that was made public advised against the transfer due to its high cost and ecological impact (a debatable issue), and Minister García Tejerina again rejected the project.
In conclusion, the transfer of the Rhône would have avoided reaching the current dramatic situation, which has forced the application of restrictions, and which may possibly end up requiring transporting water in ships from outside Catalonia. Furthermore, we would have cheaper water than desalinated water, and much cheaper than the 10 euros/m3 that it will cost to transport it by boat.
