The reserves of the reservoirs have fallen today, for the first time, from the 20% border, standing at 19%. This was announced in a press appearance by the director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), Samuel Reyes. If we add to this worrying data - as the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, has advanced after today's Executive Council - that the forecasts do not indicate sufficient rainfall to reverse the situation, everything converges in a scenario of future restrictions. Plaja has verbalized it this way: “Many populations will enter the emergency phase in the coming weeks.” She has therefore predicted an "extremely worrying" outlook.
At the moment, today there have been 23 more municipalities, from the headwaters of the Llobregat River, that have gone from the alert phase to exceptional status. This phase represents the scenario prior to the emergency phase.
They are municipalities in the counties of Berguedà, Solsonès and Ripollès, with a combined population of 15,323 inhabitants: Bagà, Borredà, Capolat, Castell de l'Areny, Castellar de n'Hug, Castellar del Río, Cercs, Fígols, Gisclareny, Gombrèn, Gósol, Guardiola de Berguedà, Guixers, la Coma y la Pedra, la Nou de Berguedà, La Pobla de Lillet, las Llosas, Saldes, Sant Jaume de Frontanyà, Sant Julià de Cerdanyola, Sant Llorenç de Morunys, Vallcebre y Vilada.
Reyes has stressed that the episode of rain on October 19 and 20 has been completely insufficient. And he has set an example. At the head of the Muga River, which supplies the Darnius-Boadella reservoir, “not a drop fell.” In this sense, he has highlighted that in the internal basins of Muga, Ter and Llobregat "there is a rainfall deficit of 30% each year."
For all these reasons, he has stated that he sees it as "inevitable" that the emergency phase will not be entered in 2023 due to a situation that he has defined as "critical." Depending on the water that may fall and the savings that are made, he understands that this scenario could occur either in December, as had already been announced, or move forward to the end of November.
The Interdepartmental Commission of Sequera (meeting today) has also discussed the declaration of a state of emergency (red light) in the municipality of Vallirana (Baix Llobregat), with 23,004 inhabitants, at the request of the City Council itself. Since this town is governed by the rainfall indicator, the decision has been made as a result of the low level of its underground reserves. The municipality is not connected to any supra-municipal supply network and the project is being drafted to incorporate it into the Ter Llobregat network to increase the guarantee of supply.
The rest of the units in the internal Catalan basins will continue in the same situation, so that, when the information in the DOGC is updated, 2 areas will be in a normal situation, 2 in alert, 11 in exceptionality and 3 in emergency.
The serious and long drought that has affected the internal basins of Catalonia since the end of 2020 is making it necessary to mobilize new water resources, including those that until now had not been considered suitable for purification, as is the case of the Besòs River. With the aim of increasing the availability of water, the ACA has put out to tender the drafting of the basic project for the construction of two water treatment plants in the final stretch of the Besòs, specifically in the area of the river as it passes through Montcada i Reixac and between Barcelona, Santa Coloma de Gramanet and Sant Adrià del Besòs, in the areas of Mas Rampinyo and Bon Pastor, respectively.
The ACA has already begun drilling work on two wells and three research probes in the final stretch of the Besòs River. This action is being carried out in the municipalities of Montcada i Reixac and Santa Coloma de Gramenet with the aim of having new water collections in the current context of drought.
