The water reserves in the Ter and Llobregat reservoirs, which supply the region of Barcelona and Girona, are below a quarter of their maximum capacity. Specifically, they are at 23%, very close to the historical minimum of 2008 (20.5%). The Generalitat foresees that this central region of Catalonia will enter into an emergency situation at the end of November if the necessary rains do not occur. The 64 Catalan municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants have already presented their municipal emergency plans for the drought, where they must specify the essential domestic restrictions in the worst case scenario (with supply cuts or pressure drop in the most advanced phase of the emergency).
“We have no choice but to persevere in saving; "Citizens must know that the fact that it rains a little one day does not change the situation, which has not been resolved, far from it," says Jordi Molist, director of the supply area of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA). .
Continuous, persistent rain in the headwaters of the rivers is an urgent need. The drought has continued to be “very intense and worrying” this summer, according to Molist. After a period in which the reserves remained stable (in May and June) thanks to some contributions, the level of the reservoirs has been reducing and their collapse continues due to summer consumption and the irrigation campaign (although very reduced in these dates).
The rain events have been insufficient, only fleeting floods have been recorded in the rivers that have lasted a maximum of one day, and the rainfall has been located mainly in the south.
The level of the reservoirs is close to the historic lows reached in the 2007/2008 drought, when administrations were forced to hire ships for supply. The Barcelona region stores 145 hm3 of water (of 612 hm3 of total capacity) while the minimum measured then was 125 hm3 (they were at 20.5%) “The difference is that now we have two desalination plants and regenerated water that is indirectly reused in the Llobregat, which gives us a margin that we did not have before,” evaluates Molist.
The special drought plan of the Generalitat foresees that if water resources are below 100 hm3 (16% capacity) this region would enter the emergency phase, in which the Darnius Boadella area is already located, in the Alt Emporda. In its first stage, the declaration of emergency does not necessarily entail domestic restrictions for essential uses; But measures will be taken to the extreme to not exceed the water allocations to the municipalities and the control of prohibited uses of water (such as the use of irrigation in public and private parks and green areas, etc.), including even the strict prohibition of filling swimming pools.
The limitations for the agricultural, livestock and industrial sectors would intensify until reaching cuts of 80%, 50% and 25% respectively; and the allocations to the municipalities would be restricted from 230 liters per person per day for all uses to 200 liters. To the extent that this emergency worsens, municipalities could organize hourly supply cuts or pressure reduction, although the latter is the option preferred by experts to avoid risks of leaks and breaks in the pipes due to repeated closures and openings.
The 64 municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants in Catalonia have already presented their emergency plan against drought (where they detail the measures to face the situation) and of them 40 have obtained a favorable assessment from the Agència Catalana de l'Aigua ( the rest are in the process of evaluation or need to be improved).
The Barcelona area is now using the two desalination plants at maximum capacity; It captures the entire flow of water that circulates through the Llobregat River as it passes through Sant Joan Despí to make its flow drinkable, and the El Prat water regenerating plant is operating at maximum capacity, which is reused indirectly by pumping it upstream (1,400 l /s). In addition, water quality controls in the reservoirs are being tightened, since the water layer is closer to the sludge in the reservoirs.
Since the water leaves the reservoirs from different heights (higher or lower), "every day we analyze where the water can be extracted from to achieve better use," says Molist.
Specifically, nutrients and algae are controlled to avoid episodes of putrefaction. In addition, the water treatment plants are prepared to face possible deterioration in the flow by stockpiling or renewing the active carbon used in filtering and treatment.
Retracing the path and getting out of this hole is not easy, since it is necessary to increase the reserves of the rivers by 65% to get out of the alert situation. An autumn with normal rainfall would lead us to recover reserves by the end of the year "and would allow us to exit the alert next year." But this is a circumstance that requires intense and continued rains, to go from the current 145 hm3 to 240 hm3, the threshold that allows the alert to be overcome.
