The Catalan Water Agency (ACA) has awarded the contract for the drafting of the construction project for the installation of fourteen piezometers in thirteen locations corresponding to ten Catalan regions, specifically in Capmany (Alt Empordà), Olot (Garrotxa), Súria ( Bages), Cardona (Bages), Sant Antoni de Vilamajor (Vallès Oriental), Torrelavit (Alt Penedès), Piera (Anoia), two in the Houses of Alcanar (Montsià), Vacarisses (Vallès Occidental), Moià (Moianès), Calaf (Anoia) and Santa Coloma de Queralt (Conca de Barberà).
The amount for drafting the project is more than 45,300 euros. A period of nine months is expected to be able to have the construction project for the installation of the piezometers.
The action will allow the current piezometric network to be redefined and complemented with the drilling of new control points, so that all water masses have the necessary information to be assessed from a quantitative point of view, as required by the Water Framework Directive. The information from the piezometers is vital to know the state and evolution of underground water masses that are strategic reserves, especially in times of water scarcity.
The Catalan Water Agency has established a defined piezometric network, with around 380 control points, in some of the aquifers of the internal basins of Catalonia, where the groundwater level is periodically measured. This network has made it possible to assess the evolution of piezometric levels in these aquifers and determine the quantitative state of the underground water masses.
The new piezometers, when they are in service, will allow us to expand knowledge about some territorial areas with aquifers where the information from the piezometric levels is little or none, which makes it impossible to analyze their quantitative status.
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides for the establishment of monitoring and control programs for the quantitative and qualitative status of groundwater, in order to periodically report on them.
Annex V of the Directive specifies the requirements that control networks must have. Following the WFD guidelines, the current piezometric network must be redefined and completed with the drilling of new control points, so that all water masses have the necessary information to be assessed from a quantitative point of view.
