The citizen platform Aigua és Vida has spoken out against “paid” climate shelters. This entity has spoken out in favor of setting up climate shelters to overcome the high temperatures in summer but demands that they be “public and free”, and organized in a “coherent” manner. These statements have been made to assess the Government's decree law that modifies the special drought plan, with which public and private swimming pools (except single-family ones) may open this summer if they are classified as a climate refuge by the town councils, as long as are open to the public. The entity regrets that what the Government regulates are "paid shelters."
Until now, in the emergency phase, it was prohibited to fill swimming pools except for federated sports and therapeutic ones. The entire region of Barcelona, areas of Girona and the Costa Brava are in an emergency situation. Now, with the new decree, private pools (hotels, campsites and communities of owners) can also be filled with the condition that they serve as a climate refuge. This measure will mainly affect the swimming pools in tourist establishments and community areas. Hotels, campsites and communities of owners that are considered refuges may charge for admission
The controversial text introduced explicitly indicates that private pools in which public use is made must have “identical price conditions as public pools.”
From Aigua és Vida they ask the municipalities for responsibility and rigor when preparing the census of climate shelters. Remember that libraries, civic centers, parks and gardens with water points and beaches can also be included. "In any case, and whenever possible, the public and free nature of climate shelters should prevail," they comment.
One of the first tailored reactions is that of the Barcelona Hotel Guild, which celebrates the consideration of hotels as climate refuges. The platform recalls that Barcelona and the Metropolitan Area have a wide network of climate shelters that makes this measure unnecessary in this region, the same occurs in coastal municipalities that have nearby bathing points.
"We hope that the city councils do not bow to the pressure and that this measure does not represent a Trojan horse for hoteliers to be able to fill swimming pools and receive a financial benefit in return," explains Dante Maschio, spokesperson for the entity.
Aigua és Vida asks city councils for responsibility and rigor when preparing the census of climate refuges, which will be used to authorize the filling of swimming pools.
On the other hand, this entity also welcomes the specific measures decreed regarding tourism, but considers them insufficient and unambitious.
“Although they arrive late and are insufficient, we celebrate the restrictions in the tourism sector proposed by the Government. This confirms the thesis that we have been working on for months and that it points to tourism as an intensive activity in the use of water,” they comment.
The Government has established a limitation for tourists of 115 liters per hotel stay per day in the exceptional phase, which drops to 100 liters in emergency I, 90 lpd in emergency II and 80 lpd in emergency III. It will only be mandatory as long as the municipality exceeds for three consecutive months the maximum municipal allocation established in the PES, which now in emergency phase I is 200 lpd for the entire municipality.
"We understand that the efforts made by citizens, businesses and industry cannot mean an open bar to water consumption by tourists," they warn.
According to the platform, the restriction should be mandatory throughout the Catalan coast and in those municipalities where tourist activity has a significant weight.
In fact, the decree law on urgent measures to address drought not only introduces the concept of climate refuge but also relaxes measures related to filling swimming pools. In addition, it sets a limit on water consumption per place in tourist establishments, regulates private portable desalination plants and modifies the sanctioning regime.
The decree regulates private mobile desalination plants, allowing their installation as long as they are covered with private funds and obtain a concession for exclusive use of the public hydraulic domain, leaving them outside the restrictions imposed by the drought plan.
"We consider that it is very serious to allow private actors to obtain water for private uses and leave them outside the restrictions that the rest of us suffer," they denounce.
From the platform they comment that this generates a comparative grievance between those who can pay for water for their particular uses, and remember that the consolidated text of the Water Law allows the forced expropriation of concessions due to force majeure, such as necessity. to have water available to comply with the prioritization of uses established by the law itself.
