More aware of the evolution of the tourist season, the water parks are not worried about the drought. For years these establishments have been committed to a sustainable economy and manage to "use as little water as possible", explains Josep Maria Cama, president of the Association of Parcs Aqüàtics de Catalunya. When the attractions are designed, the project implies the detection of groundwater wells to supply the facilities "except those used for consumption, hotels and toilets".
"We are not large consumers of water, although it seems otherwise" says Cama. The consumption of a leisure complex with water attractions, such as Illa Fantasia in Vilassar de Dalt (Maresme), which brings together a more familiar public in the metropolitan area, "spends less than a middle-class hotel" that consumes about 300 liters per person per day. "We much less, half," she says.
The campaign begins in June with school activities. Until the fourth week of July, the couples and colonies alternate with the first tourists. "But the tough campaign starts now, in July."
The Vilassar de Dalt aquatic complex could be taken as an example of the evolution of recreational water parks. They practically only fill the pools at the beginning of the season and since then the water circulates through closed circuits and constantly passes through a filter system and undergoes a purification process that returns it to the attractions sanitized. Even, Cama details, "the water with which we clean the filters is not thrown away, we reuse it for the toilets."
Illa Fantasia, with a capacity for 8,000 people, is a clear example of energy optimization. “We are a very familiar park, 70% of the clients come from the Barcelona metropolitan area”, emphasizes Cama, who is also the owner of Waterworld and Aqua Diver in Platja d'Aro. “We have been open for 39 years and we are constantly innovating” both in terms of sustainability and offering renovated attractions adapted to trends.
On the Costa Brava, the Waterworld, Lloret de Mar and Aquadiver, Platja d'Aro water parks, which last year added more than 330,000 visitors, began to eliminate flower beds in 2019, which required a lot of water, and ornamental grass, which is not part of visitor rest areas. Those grassy areas that visitors cannot walk on have been replaced by paving or have stopped being irrigated. With these two actions and the progressive substitution of sprinkler and micro-sprinkler irrigation areas with a drop-by-drop irrigation system, they have achieved 90% water savings in garden areas, which is the part of the park that uses the most water. 38% of the water used comes from the own wells that the two parks have. This is the one that is used mainly for watering the lawn. The rest comes from the network.
The director of the two facilities affirms that Waterworld went from consuming 77,000 cubic meters in the year in 2019 to 57,000 last season.
"It is when irrigating the garden areas that the park consumes the most water," explains the director of both parks, Julià López-Arenas. The attractions work with a closed circuit, so that they move almost the same throughout the season, which in this type of facility is rather short.
Only 5% of the water consumed as a result of evaporation or that which gets caught in the swimsuits of users every time they slide down the attractions is renewed. "Sanitary regulations require renewing 5% of the water to make it healthy," he explains.
Beyond these actions, during this campaign the Aquadiver water park in Platja d'Aro has modified one of its attractions in order to use less liquid and at the same time increase safety. The park has reduced the water in one of its pools by two thirds, so that from the 750,000 liters of stored water it has gone to 225,000. At the same time it has reduced the depth, which has gone from 180 centimeters to 60 centimeters.
López-Arenas has his sights set on the expansion of Waterworld, which in the 2024 and 2025 seasons will have new attractions. One of the measures involves finding a system that makes it possible to take advantage of the cleaning water from the filters and prevent it from ending up in the sewer and being used to discharge the toilet cisterns.
In the Caribe Aquatic Park of Port Aventura, on the Costa Daurada, with 50,000 square meters and two kilometers of slides, 51,236 cubic meters of "recreational and bathing water" were consumed last year, according to data from Port Aventura World. The resort's water park, with almost 330,000 visitors in 2019, before the pandemic, highlights that 30% of the water consumed globally by the entire resort, including hotels and amusement parks such as the Caribe Aquatic Park, is reclaimed water.
In addition, when the season in the water park ends, the water from the pools is poured into the Mediterránea lake and is treated and reused for bathing in the following season, they add from Port Aventura World. The system must supply water to a total of 14 attractions, waterfalls and also huge pools where thousands of people bathe in summer. "Port Aventura World was already designed under environmental criteria with a closed water circuit thanks to the construction of a tertiary system," recall the same sources. It is not, therefore, a new situation derived now from the historical drought. "The water park is designed so that there is no loss of water in its attractions, so that the waves or the water spouts never cause water spills outside the attraction or the pool," they exemplify. There is no grass area, ornamental or of any kind: they are artificial grass.
According to the Agència Catalana de l'Aigua (ACA), all the water parks in Catalonia consume an average of between 0.8 and 0.9 cubic hectometres of water annually. A figure that is equivalent to between 800,000 and 900,000 million liters. The figure is slightly less than what 7.5 million tourists consume in a single day, which is one cubic hectometre.
The veteran promoter of water parks, Josep Maria Cama, predicts that "the season will be one of the best" because leisure is now one of the priorities of families and "people want to go out" and forget about the economic recession spending some very pleasant days. "Water parks sell sensations and we are going to continue offering them."
