The rains in May and June have meant some relief to face the current situation of drought that the Barcelona region and the whole of the internal basins of Catalonia are experiencing. At least, they allow the specter of the dreaded domestic restrictions to be removed a little. If rainfall remained at its record low levels, "the most severe restrictions related to the emergency (domestic consumption) would be delayed until November," Samuel Reyes, director of the Agència Catalana de l'Aigua (ACA) told this newspaper. .
The end of spring and the beginning of summer have given a balloon of oxygen to the administrations in charge of water management. But the situation is far from normalizing. The Ter and Llobregat reservoirs, which supply the central region, are at 31%; they have only gained six points compared to their minimum levels recorded at the worst moment.
May has had average records in its level of rainfall, while in June it has rained above average. "The situation has been better than expected," says Reyes.
The fact that the land was already humid or soaked has favored the gradual increase of water reserves. In the Sau reservoir (Ter), they only increased by 10 hm3 in May, while in June it has already increased by 30 hm3.
The level of the Llobregat reservoirs in May continued with a flat encephalogram while in June this rise in levels has already been appreciated.
However, in Camp de Tarragona and Empordà it has barely rained. The reservoirs of Siurana, Darnius and Riudecanyes are going down; on the other hand, the Segre area, in Oliana and Rialb, has quite recovered its levels.
“We have had an optimal month of June, which allows us to move away from the emergency in a couple of months. If before our forecast was that we would enter an emergency situation at the end of August, now we place it in November. In other words, these rains have given us the months of September and October,” says Samuel Reyes, director of the ACA. The rains have given a "cushion" of between two months and two and a half months.
However, the level of drought alert has not been modified. The exceptional situation continues. The restrictions now affect the agricultural, industrial and livestock sectors, fundamentally, in addition to irrigation of gardens, green areas and street cleaning.
But if the emergency phase were to enter (with reservoirs at 16%), a new turn of the screw would be given, the per capita water allocations per day would be reduced and the domestic sphere itself would be affected.
"We continue to be exceptional because right now, at the moment when the rains end, the strongest irrigation period begins," says Reyes. While in winter the reserves drop little by little, in summer the decline is very pronounced. "That is why we maintain the degree of exceptionality," he says, waiting to assess the situation in the months of September or October. Currently, 495 municipalities and 6.3 million people are in an exceptional situation.
Samuel Reyes points out that it is not convenient to claim victory or get carried away by unjustifiable optimism. “We must not be fooled by the June rains. We must not think that the situation is already normal. With the rain of a month or a month and a half we do not solve the problem that has been brewing for 30 months ”, he adds.
The director of the ACA highlights that the situation is far from normalizing, since the objective is not only to guarantee domestic supply but also economic activities, and these are of great importance in many small municipalities.
“In the internal basins, almost 50% of the water is dedicated to domestic uses, and that is why our individual action is very important. Now in summer we must make good use of water ”, he concludes. Last summer, consumption shot up 10% in a context of high temperatures. “We have to maintain the savings that we have achieved in recent months”, he highlights.
The main supply problems will occur in municipalities that are not connected to the large upstream supply networks (Ter-Llobergat) and that depend on their own local resources. Among these we can mention l'Espluga de Francolí or Cabrera d'Anoia (whose wells were drying up and where emergency works are being carried out for their connection to the ATL system).
One reason for "precaution" is that when the level of the reservoirs drops too much, many municipalities in Solsonès may have supply problems because their pumps may remain above the water level of the reservoir. Likewise, the municipalities of Moianès and Anoia that do not have supra-municipal networks may have problems.
The supply in the Barcelona region has been able to be maintained above all thanks to unconventional flows; that is, those from the desalination plants and the reclaimed water from the El Prat station, from where flows are pumped upstream to be made drinkable in Sant Joan Despí. Desalinated and regenerated water is already the majority in the area of the 23 municipalities served by Aigües de Barcelona.
Now almost a year has passed since the two desalination plants are 100% operational; This means that 80 cubic hectometres have been produced in one year, which is more than what is in the Susqueda reservoir.
The regeneration of water allows taking advantage of 1,500 liters per second. That is almost the same as that produced by the El Prat desalination plant (2000 l/s). “We are almost matching the desalination flows,” Reyes points out.
On the other hand, the 20 water regeneration plants have also been key for street cleaning, for support irrigation in some agricultural areas and for the maintenance of environmental flows and humid areas, since it has produced more than 60 hm3 in the year 2022.
The Government will publish this week an aid order with subsidies worth 50 million euros to improve the efficiency of strictly municipal networks, with two purposes: one is to fix the leaks they suffer (losses that make them lose a lot of water and that force to change some pipes in the streets) and, secondly, it seeks to sectorize these local networks to be able to know, control and manage them better. Monitoring systems are subsidized to detect leaks and repair them.
Even the regulation of the pressure systems will be subsidized so that the water reaches the houses evenly. Aigües de Manresa is carrying out tests so that, even with a drop in pressure, the flow reaches everywhere but consumes much less. It is about checking if it is possible to save water without affecting the service.
In addition, a subsidy line of 40 million euros must be resolved to increase the supply, so that many municipalities can open new wells and have new treatments.
It is expected that some pending actions claimed by Agbar in the area of Sant Just and Sant Joan Despí will be ungrounded this month, where new wells, pipes and new treatments must be made (with an investment of 105 million), and whose projects the ACA must authorize.
