Water is an essential resource to guarantee the present and future sustainability of the planet. Climate change intensifies and makes dry periods more common, especially in areas where water scarcity is permanent, as is the case of the Mediterranean arc. And when it rains, it does so irregularly. A great challenge that is at the same time an incentive to innovate and find new solutions to the climate emergency.
World Water Day, which is celebrated on March 22, focuses this year precisely on the need to accelerate changes to deal with this situation. A particularly worrying day-to-day in Catalonia, where the reservoirs have water reserves of 27% of their capacity (less than half that of a year ago). Last November, the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) declared a state of alert in the Barcelona metropolitan area, and earlier this month it declared a state of exceptionality, with more restrictive measures. We are experiencing the most critical situation in the last fifty years.
It is estimated that the current water deficit in the Barcelona metropolitan region is 60 cubic hectometres (hm3) per year, and that by 2050 it will reach 130 hm3. A challenge that endangers the water supply to cities, industry and agriculture. What to do in this complex scenario?
Aigües de Barcelona, a world leader in innovation in the water sector, is committed to the use of reclaimed water. Regenerating water means subjecting the purified water to additional treatment so that it can be reused for different uses following a circular model. The most sustainable way to preserve water resources and aquatic ecosystems and avoid the impact of periods of drought and structural water scarcity in which we are immersed, giving a new life to water.
Aigües de Barcelona regenerated a total of 50 hm3 of water in 2022, the equivalent of the annual water consumption of more than a million people. Today, the most demanded uses of regenerated water are as a source of water for the potable water treatment station (ETAP) of Sant Joan Despí; environmental uses, such as the maintenance of the ecological flow of the Llobregat river or injection into the aquifers to prevent saline intrusion, and agricultural uses, such as the irrigation of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park, the Canal de la Infanta or the Rec Vell de Sant Vicenç dels Horts.
Aigües de Barcelona is leading the development of the Metropolitan Reclaimed Water Master Plan, in collaboration with the Administration and potential water users. This Plan represents a key strategic piece for the territory, since it outlines in detail all its potential uses, present and future, and the necessary treatment and distribution systems for them to become a reality; fundamental work to guarantee water resilience.
Likewise, the company has proposed a project, under the umbrella of European Next Generation funds, to achieve water resilience in a sustainable way in the metropolitan region of Barcelona, taking into account current and future water needs. This structural project would allow the incorporation of up to 150 hm3 of new resources per year. In this way, the availability of water in the metropolitan area of Barcelona would be guaranteed.
Alliances with the territory are key to moving forward in this new, more sustainable model. A clear example of this is the project to distribute regenerated water from the water regeneration station (ERA) of Riu Sec, in Sabadell, to the municipalities of Sant Cugat del Vallès and Cerdanyola del Vallès. An initiative by Aigües de Barcelona and Aigües de Sabadell commissioned by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) and with the impetus of the ACA which has the collaboration of the town councils of Sabadell, Sant Cugat and Cerdanyola, as well as several key users. The initiative, a good example of public-private collaboration, will allow the use of regenerated water for the irrigation of green areas, as well as residential uses, in sports facilities and strategic equipment such as the Science Park.
In Molins de Rei, Aigües de Barcelona leads the study to recover the landscape and biodiversity of the wetlands of this municipality, which occupy the space of an old meander of the Llobregat river, with reclaimed water. The water will be brought from the ERA in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, where the water from Molins de Rei and other nearby municipalities is treated.
Digitization is also a powerful tool to improve resilience against the effects of the climate emergency. In this sense, Aigües de Barcelona has promoted the RESSONA project, together with the Administration, for the digital transformation of all stages of the urban water cycle in the Barcelona metropolitan area. This action aims to increase the resilience of the urban water cycle and, at the same time, reduce the climatic impacts of the activity. An environmental and social transformation that opts for a grant of 10 million euros from PERTE for the digitization of the water cycle and which is currently in the evaluation phase by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
It is therefore necessary to have a solid and coordinated investment in infrastructures that improve the sustainability and resilience of the territory, in order to guarantee the supply to the cities of the future. A present with less water requires finding new solutions and applying all available knowledge, with the greatest speed and collective impulse. There are no more excuses, it is time to act and join efforts.
