The hoteliers of Maresme, whose tourist facility has more than 30,000 beds, are not willing to lose the season due to the restrictions decreed by the drought situation and demand freedom of movement to seek alternative solutions, which could involve the purchase of resorts. mobile desalination plants that allow the filling of pools.
The professionals of the sector in Maresme reacted with indignation to the words of those responsible for Tourism and the representatives of the Generalitat, who in a recent appearance in Calella denied the possibility of acquiring desalination stations to be able to fill the pools during the tourist season. It is not understood that, from one department, they prohibit the use of this desalinated water to fill swimming pools and from another level, such as the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), this possibility is contemplated, which is why they demand that "the administrations "in agreement between them and do not offer an image of confusion in the face of the extreme emergency situation."
As detailed by the Maresme Regional Council, the water efficiency subsidy bases of the General Directorate of Tourism itself contemplate the possibility that establishments affected by the restrictions can opt for alternative solutions, such as the acquisition of mobile desalination stations, as the hoteliers of Lloret proposed. “However, the department is not willing to do the work, even though we did not ask for money,” they point out.
From Turisme de la Generalitat, as explained by the hoteliers themselves, an investment line was announced to improve the efficiency of tourist establishments. The bases of said aid contemplate the acquisition of desalination plants with a maximum institutional contribution of 300,000 euros. “Currently we can find desalination plants for 700,000 euros”, so the businessmen would be in favor of passing on the cost of the remaining 400,000 euros between the hotels and the Consorci de Promotion Turística, which depends on the Consell Comarcal del Maresme.
The hotel sector, faced with the harsh restrictions dictated by the Generalitat and "the lack of willingness to seek solutions for the sector", recognize that "it would be more practical for us to pay the fines", but they demand "responsibility" from the administration to "maintain tourist destinations". quality".
The Maresme captures 30% of the water from the Tordera desalination plant, but the region blames the Generalitat for not having made the investments committed to in 2001, when they agreed with the agricultural sector that the purified water would be returned to the riverbed to avoid salinization of aquifers.
Building a purification and pumping station for regenerated water towards the riverbed, according to sources from the Maresme Regional Council, has a cost of five million euros, which 23 years later has become 17 million. The regional entity states that it could be reduced to 12.5 million if the reverse osmosis process is eliminated, since the regenerated water is not for human use.
“We demand from the ACA the investment committed to saving the Maresme water,” says the Regional Council's Territory and Sustainability Minister, Lluís Farrerons. Given the non-compliance with official investments, it is not understood that there is an attempt to prevent the tourism sector from mobilizing. “Hotels have been modernizing their facilities for two years” in anticipation of situations like the current one, which is why they demand facilities for new investments.
The mobile desalination plants, installed in prefabricated modules, have the capacity to treat 50 cubic meters of water every hour (50,000 liters). They calculate that filling the pools of hotels, campsites or tourist accommodation would only require a fifth of the plant's production, just under 10 cubic meters per hour, so they suggest that the excess water could be diverted to the river bed to form “an aquifer boundary” that prevents salinization of the aquifer.
