The drought is not having an impact, for the moment, on companies dedicated to the construction and sale of swimming pools, whose activity skyrocketed in the pandemic. The forecast of the Spanish employers in the sector, the Spanish Association of Professionals in the Swimming Pool Sector (Asofap), is that this year sales will grow by 3.5%.
Despite the exceptional situation that half of Catalonia is going through, and that prohibits the filling of swimming pools, the president of the entity, Agustí Ferrer, explains that "the demand continues", although their owners may not be able to make use of the installation this summer.
"In places in exceptional situations due to drought, there will be those who decide to wait another year, but many others, in anticipation that the delivery or manufacturing process may be delayed, prefer to buy now," explains Ferrer, who points out that Spain is the third country in the world in volume of business generated by the sale of swimming pools after the United States and France.
The first summer after the outbreak of the pandemic, the sector increased sales significantly. So the wait could be extended up to a year.
What the sector has also perceived is that those owners who must reform the pool or repair a small fault, in most cases decide to postpone it. Once emptied of water, that pool can no longer be refilled.
Isaac Prat, from Prat Poliéster Piscines, from Fontcoberta, explains that "we are working 100%". Prat remembers that the cost of water in a swimming pool is not excessive. “A study in France indicates that it accounts for 0.1% of the total water used in the country”, he says.
Eulogio Prada, in charge of a company based on the Costa Daurada, indicates that the pace of construction is the same as in previous years and that they have even received orders for new water parks in Salou and Almería. Other firms such as EUC Piscines, from Barcelona, also confirm that the demand is the usual one.
In Aiguapolis, with offices in Girona and Figueres, they continue to build, although new clients are told that "we cannot guarantee that they can fill it." The director of the center in Figueres, Víctor Blasco, also affirms that they have increased the business leg related to water care and analytics. "When the water becomes saturated with chemicals, you have to empty the glass, and in many areas right now you can't refill it," he explains.
At Visma Piscines, in Llagostera, they say that one of the most repeated questions these weeks by customers is: "How do you have to do it if it can't be filled?" The standard set by the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) is clear.
In the exceptional phase, refilling is only allowed for sanitary reasons and in swimming pools with a closed circuit, removable 500-liter pools for educational centers or the use of seawater, if it is not evacuated through the sewer.
