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The Sau reservoir is at 7.7% of its capacity. Lamentable and sad image of the reservoir, which is at minimum levels never seen before at the beginning of the new year, as seen in this report in La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos.
Catalonia ended the year 2023 punished by the most extreme drought in history and with the reservoirs of the internal basins at 16.9% of their capacity, at the limit of the emergency phase in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, which will mean applying the restrictions more severe in water use. Today, as of January 2, the reservoirs are at 17%.
The state of emergency is decreed when reserves drop below 16%, which could already happen this January in the Ter Llobregat system, currently already in the pre-emergency phase.
This system of swamps, aquifers, desalination plants and purification plants supplies the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the southern part of the province of Girona, the most populated area of Catalonia and where six million people live.
The two large reservoirs of the Ter Llobregat system, Sau and Susqueda, are in a critical situation. At this time, Sau, with a large part of the resources transferred, is at 7.7% of its capacity, while Susqueda - the receiving reservoir and the largest in Catalonia - is at 20.4%.
Of the areas that are fed by the internal basins of Catalonia, which are the provinces of Barcelona, Girona and part of Tarragona, the most serious situation is in Empordà, which is already in the emergency phase. This area in the north of Girona, with towns such as Figueres, is fed by the Fluvià-Muga aquifer and the Darnius-Boadella reservoir, which is at 13% of capacity, with only 8 hm3.
In Tarragona, the drought is still extreme, but the water shortage is not so serious, since they are in previous phases of exceptionality or alert, depending on the area. Therefore, the Government is considering loading ships with water in Tarragona and taking it to the port of Barcelona starting in the second quarter, if it does not rain at all in spring.
In the province of Tarragona there is an exception, the Riudecanyes reservoir, near Falset, which is at 3% of its capacity and in the emergency phase. As a curiosity, the level is so low that it has revealed a stolen car that was thrown into the water 26 years ago.
