The Catalan government will modify the special drought plan, so that public and private pools can be filled (in this case, with limitations) in the current emergency phase. With the current regulations, it was prohibited to use swimming pools, with the sole exception of those for therapeutic or federated sports use. Now the Government is open to authorizing the opening of public and private swimming pools, as long as they are declared as climate refuges, a power that will remain in the hands of the town councils. The municipalities that enable these climate refuges must modify their drought plan and communicate it to the Catalan Water Agency, in charge of preparing the census of climate refuges.
With the decision adopted, it will be the city councils that will have the final say in determining which public or private swimming pools will be able to open this summer as they are considered climate refuges. It has been an unexpected competition for the town councils, which will also define whether to open the swimming pools of hotels, campsites and community areas.
The Government makes these decisions in "the context of increasingly recurrent and extreme heat waves." For this reason, the decree is approved to ensure that "the most vulnerable population has municipal equipment for public use to cushion periods of extreme temperatures." Thus, a swimming pool may be declared a climate shelter by the competent local administration if in the municipality or in neighborhood This equipment is essential so that citizens can face the high temperatures.
The great novelty is that the pools that act as climate shelters may be public ones, but they may also be private, although they will require an agreement with the City Council to be for public use open to citizens and under the same conditions that public pools operate.
But the power given to city councils to establish climate shelters generates many unknowns and uncertainties because they will not only decide whether to open municipal swimming pools, but also the swimming pools of hotels, campsites and even community areas.
The spokesperson for the Catalan government, Patrícia Plaja, justified that it is the municipalities that decide which pools should be opened as they are considered climate refuges, arguing that they are the ones who best know the local situation.
He stated that this decree has been prepared "hand in hand with the municipal associations", and defended that it is the city councils that should order the entire legal situation surrounding the opening of these shelter pools.
He reiterated that in the case of community pools, hotels or campsites, they can only be put into operation when the city council decides and when they deem it really necessary and justified.
“We know that in the end common sense will fail to meet the needs of each municipality,” says Patricia Plaja.
And it will be the town councils that will have to regulate everything that surrounds the conditions of the opening of community pools (in terms of safety, rescue, capacity, schedules and others...), which will mean the modification of municipal ordinances, as noted .
“Once the census of privately owned swimming pools that are considered climate refuges has been established, it must also be the municipal ordinance that sets the criteria for the use of that swimming pool, and we talk about capacity, we talk about whether it will be free or paid, of the type of surveillance to which this pool must respond depending on the capacity, the casuistry and the characteristics of this pool,” he added.
“Each city council will set the hours, prices, conditions... We do this so as not to interfere with their municipal powers. They must give confidence to the city councils,” Patrícia Plaja repeated.
"It is not easy to define what a climate refuge is because until now we had never encountered this situation," Plaja added.
Spokesperson Plaja admitted that the answers to the multiple questions that arise must be given by each city council, since “an equal, immobile and general standard for the entire country is not possible,” where there are towns and cities of all sizes, although They will have the "accompaniment of the Generalitat"
And who will bear the cost of the lifeguards, or what will it depend on if you have to pay for entry into a climate shelter in a private urbanization? He was asked repeatedly. “It will be the city councils that will have to reach agreements with the private owners to establish the exact regime of use of these climate shelters,” Plaja stated before explaining the change of meaning that the concept of climate shelter represents in relation to the stay in a swimming pool as it has been understood until now, since a health criterion prevails. Furthermore, he argued "there are municipal swimming pools that have fees and are subsidized by the city council."
The Government's intention is for this census of shelters to be completed as soon as possible
The city councils had invoked municipal autonomy to be able to define climate shelters – and to be able to authorize the opening of swimming pools – because they were the best aware of the situation. But the Generalitat gives them all the functions and transfers them a task that can become a hot potato. The risk is that grievances will arise if the opening of a hotel pool is authorized and not a community area.
What is clear is that the opening of individual private swimming pools will not be authorized.
And it has also been decided that if a private pool (private, community, of a tourist establishment, such as a hotel or campsite) is not registered as a climate refuge, it cannot be filled or refilled.
The Government's decision to leave such broad powers in the hands of the city councils (classifying the swimming pools of hotels, campsites or communities of owners as climate shelters) has been welcomed with surprise and concern by those responsible for the municipal entities. It must be taken into account that the town councils only intended for municipal swimming pools or some private club pools to be classified as climate refuges (to host summer camps, for example...).
Also very exceptionally, it was thought that if a small town did not have a municipal pool and instead housed a community pool, it could be given public use.
“But our proposal was not designed so that the opening of community pools could be authorized,” says Eduard Rivas, president of the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC). The idea of using private community pools for public use was seen as an exception. .
However, opening the door to these exceptions necessarily raises the question of what happens if a community of owners with a swimming pool wants to open it in the summer, which requires facilitating access to the general public.
The opening of a community pool would entail many implications and is today surrounded by uncertainty. Could everyone enter that community pool? Would it be free? And, given that the community of owners is not an economic entity, could it charge for entry? Would there be a clausus number?
“Regulating those entries is not easy. Certainly there could be an urbanization that decided to open the pool to the rest of the neighbors; An agreement could be signed with the city council and open. But that must be the exception…” says Rivas, who warns of the complexity that lies ahead.
“That city councils have to authorize the opening of swimming pools for profit or for private use in a gated community is something that makes no sense,” says Rivas. “If that were the case, that would transmit a negative and misinformed message to people, the idea that we are in a drought and yet we can open swimming pools with a closed number of people. “That makes no sense,” says Rivas.
The president of the FMC and mayor of Esparraguera explains what he will do in the specific case of his town: “in my town I will not allow swimming pools to open. Only the municipal pool will open and that's it,” he says.
In Esparraguera there are two urbanizations and properties with swimming pools, but they will not authorize their opening, "because we already have the municipal swimming pool." “We politicians must also know how to say 'no', and explain why not," he says.
In the current drought situation, the areas declared in emergency cannot fill or refill the pools. Since swimming pools cannot be filled or renewed, the water evaporates and ultimately becomes unusable.
In an emergency situation, the special drought plan only allows the use of desalinated water.
And in parallel, hoteliers on the Girona coast have activated their plans to be able to have desalinated water in their pools this summer
Meritxel Budó, president of the Catalan Association of Municipalities, emphasizes that the opening of private swimming pools to the general public is an idea "that worries us" because it has multiple implications. "Solutions cannot be improvised", says Budó, mayor of La Garriga
“We must keep in mind that behind the pools there are responsibilities, safety criteria in matters such as lifeguards, we must see if it is viable. It is more complicated than a mere advertisement…”
He argues that, among other unforeseeable circumstances, it may be the case that a city council designated a community pool as a climate shelter, but that the owners did not accept public access.
This case would raise how to respect private property. “We would then have to see if the general interest goes above private property; These are issues that must be calibrated very well.”
Furthermore, this public use of the community pool also raises the question of whether a modification should be made to the statutes referring to the uses of the pool, which would require a meeting of the community residents.
On the other hand, if the neighbors agreed to allow other people to enter their pool, the question arises whether they should charge, when they are not an economic entity.
He stated that all these extremes have not been addressed by the Government. “It remains to be seen what the Government has approved.”
Through the approved decree law, the special drought plan is also modified to establish the maximum consumption thresholds per place by tourist accommodation establishments. These will be equivalent to the consumption of the citizens of Catalonia: 115 liters/place in an exceptional situation; 100 liters per seat in emergency or emergency I and 90 liters in emergency phase II. In municipalities where the maximum provisions established in the Special Drought Plan are exceeded for three consecutive months, consumption limitations according to said thresholds will be mandatory for the tourist accommodation establishments that are located.
The government argues that this measure is adopted because practically all tourist accommodation establishments are connected to the distribution networks under the same supply conditions as homes (guarantee of quality, pressure, continuous service), and although not They are domestic uses in the strict sense; they currently receive the highest priority of use over other uses such as industrial, agricultural or livestock uses.
The decree also establishes specifications on the new special regime for privately owned mobile desalination plants. Obtaining water through privately owned seawater desalination facilities is considered an additional contribution financed with own funds, that is, not public, which was not foreseen when the special drought plan was drawn up and which does not compromise the rest. of water resources of the system.
For this reason, the limitations contained in the special drought plan will not apply to water contributions from this type of facilities, as long as they are financed entirely by private funds and meet the following requirements:
The promoters of these desalination plants must have the corresponding concession of the hydraulic public domain
Furthermore, the user or the community of users who use it must use the facility to maintain the economic activity they carry out and guarantee the corresponding maintenance of the jobs in the activity.
Another requirement is that the user or the community of users must present a water consumption savings plan regarding their consumption in a normal situation.
Likewise, the arrival of the water to the point or points of use is done with periodic storage of at least 7 days or arrives with the distribution network.
And the final requirement that in the event that a community of users is established, entry to the community is offered to agricultural or livestock farms that have difficulties in supplying water.
On the other hand, the sanctioning regime is modified, in order to bring the model closer to a system that focuses on sanctioning excess consumption, and takes into consideration a consecutive quarterly period of the infraction (and not monthly, as until now) , "which allows us to take into account the trend in the evolution of consumption over a longer period and thus modulate the sanction so that the result of the file is more adjusted to the concurrent circumstances"
Furthermore, a model is proposed that specifically sanctions excess consumption and not damages and, therefore, the sanctioning amounts for damages (compensation) are eliminated.
A minor infraction will be punished with a fine of up to 10,000 euros, a serious infraction with a fine between 10,000.01 and 50,000 euros, and a very serious infraction with a fine of 50,000.01 to 150,000 euros.
The Government defends the decree law by invoking that it has been negotiated since the beginning of 2024 with the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM) and the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC). The proposals it contains had to be approved with the law on budget accompanying measures, but they cannot be processed due to the rejection of Juntx and Comunes. The Decree Law route was chosen so as not to sacrifice the work of agreements already underway since it contained key issues for municipalities.
"The decree - points out the Government - is born from the desire for understanding between the Government and the highest representatives of municipalities throughout the country to be able to provide local managers with more tools to manage the drought emergency without diminishing their municipal autonomy. ".
It also indicates that the objective is to "give them a clear framework so that they can protect citizens who are committed to saving but who suffer from drought, and at the same time, so that they have more effective tools to limit the excesses of users who put into everyone's supply at risk.
