The Spanish tourism sector expects to recover the occupancy levels prior to the covid pandemic this year. Exceltur, the association that brings together the large Spanish tourism companies, hopes to close the year with revenues of 151,000 million euros, which would mean reaching 98% of the GDP of the sector registered in 2019, when a historical maximum was marked. Tourism returns, but it does so in the summer with the emptiest reservoirs so far this century, as they are only at 45.3% of their capacity.
According to data from the World Tourism Organization, while a European citizen in their usual home consumes between 50 and 200 liters of water a day (just over 100 liters in the case of Catalans), a tourist can consume more than 400 liters of water daily. In addition, José Carlos Diez, director of the Water Economy Forum, recalls that "most tourists are concentrated in coastal areas, which are the ones that suffer the most water stress, and just in July and August, which are the months driest of the year.
Fernando Morcillo, president of the Spanish Association of Water Supply and Sanitation (Aeas), calms down stating that "supply for human consumption is guaranteed", but warns of the large existing deficit in investments in urban supply infrastructure. “Only 25% of the hydrological investment plans end up being executed, which means that the infrastructures are increasingly obsolete, to the detriment of the quality of the water and the performance of the networks, because more water is lost,” Morcillo affirms. "We haven't invested in water infrastructure since 2010, and this is a problem in times of drought," adds Diez.
According to calculations by Aeas, urban water needs an annual investment of an additional 2,500 million euros, up to 4,900 million, in order to guarantee the quality and sustainability of services and face future challenges such as climate change or the most demanding regulatory requirements in matter of water quality, purification, purification and reuse. It is estimated that covering the investment deficit in the urban water cycle would generate the equivalent of more than 43,000 full-time jobs per year in Spain and would mean a reduction in water losses in the distribution network of between 14% and 22%. %.
The Water Economy Forum also highlights the importance of taking measures to optimize water management, with special emphasis on digitization. Diez urges, for example, the installation of sensors in aquifers to prevent their overexploitation. Toni Sánchez Zaplana, director of innovation at Hidraqua (Agbar group), affirms that progress is being made in this field. “From our Dinapsis hub for digital transformation, located mainly in tourist cities, we have developed artificial intelligence algorithms that allow us to obtain a prediction of water consumption for years to come. The results are applied to our expert planning systems for new infrastructures, with which we can know the resources necessary to minimize the impact of the increase in population in tourist areas in summer and, on the other hand, adapt to climate change”.
Ten points to one last problem: "The low price that the consumer pays for water in Spain compared to other countries." In his opinion, higher prices would be an incentive to invest in efficiency.
