The Catalan government will study this Tuesday whether to lift the emergency phase due to the drought, which, if confirmed, would mean a relaxation of restrictions on water uses. This evaluation will take place after the significant contributions of rain recorded in recent weeks. Thanks to them, reserves in the Barcelona and Girona region, served by the Ter and Llobregat, have increased to 25% of their maximum capacity, which is close to the level established as the threshold that would allow the most acute phase to be overcome. of the drought.
The Government has opened the door for the drought emergency to be lifted in the central region of Catalonia and the Costa Brava after confirming the notable increase in reserves.
The Ter and Llobregat reservoirs now store 151 cubic hectometres, 60 cubic hectometers more than what they had stored at the beginning of March, when they reached their lowest level. This means that bookings have increased by 65% since then.
The gain of 60 hectometers is equivalent to the entire production of drinking water over a year at the El Prat desalination plant.
The recovery of the level of the reservoirs has been very notable in recent times, since the precipitation has been combined with the thaw. In recent days, the reservoirs have gained an average of about 2 cubic hectometers per day (which is equivalent to two million cubic meters, that is, about 2,000 million liters per day). The Barcelona area consumes 0.24 cubic hectometers of these reservoirs every day.
In the case of the Ter and Llobregat basins, since the last rainy period began (on April 28), the increase in reserves has been about 35 hm3 (up to 151 hm3); so they have gone from 19% to 25%.
The drought emergency situation currently affects the central region of Barcelona, where 202 municipalities with around six million inhabitants live. Likewise, the area served by the Darnius Boadella, on which a dozen localities depend, is in a grade II emergency situation.
Municipalities in emergency level one have established a maximum amount of water served by the Generalitat of 200 liters per person per day. In addition, it has strong restrictions in the industrial, agricultural and livestock fields, and they cannot fill swimming pools (including those in hotels, neighborhood communities and campsites, unless these are declared climate refuges by the town councils, which is not the case. is producing).
Councilor David Mascort pointed out a few days ago that to lower the level of alert and move to the exceptional phase, the Ter Llobregat system should reach 165 hm3 (which would mean placing these reservoirs at 27% of their capacity).
For their part, globally, the reservoirs of the internal basins are at 23.5% with 163 cubic hectometers (hm3), which represents five percentage points more and 33 hm3 more than the past records prior to the last rainy period ( 18.1% and 125.9 hm3).
Before moving to the state of emergency, last February the Generalitat created an intermediate “pre-emergency” stage; However, the councilor did not refer to it last Thursday; If it were resorted to, the first measures could be applied to make the restrictions more flexible without becoming exceptional.
The Darnius Boadella reservoir, in the Empordà area (north of Girona), is the most critical unit and the only one in emergency phase II, but the rains have improved the situation and reserves have risen to 16.18%.
In the province of Barcelona, the Sau reservoir has gone from being practically empty to growing by up to 12.7%, although its flows are transferred to the neighboring Susqueda reservoir, which has also grown, up to 26.49%.
In the Sant Ponç and La Baells reservoirs (in the Llobregat basin) they are at 32.3% and 37.2%.
Despite the possible change in the situation of the reservoirs, the head of Acció Climàtica was cautious last week: “We must evaluate day by day. There are many circumstances that must be considered. At the meeting of the interdepartmental drought commission next week (which is being held today) we will assess all the data and what stage we are at,” he said.
“What we will not do for sure is lift the emergency and, after 15 days, enter again. We must assess the consumption throughout the summer, the needs of the irrigators of each of the units. We must be able to present medium-term scenarios,” he added.
