With the worsening drought and the ban in part of Catalonia (224 municipalities of the Ter-Llobregat system and the Fluvià Muga aquifer, in 15 regions) to fill swimming pools, in force since March, drinking water transport companies in tanker trucks are receiving with the arrival of the heat an avalanche of requests from individuals. Owners of houses with swimming pools who are looking for a way to be able to have water in the pool before summer.
The Generalitat announced that it will allow the filling of "public access" swimming pools, municipal and also community pools, given that they are "climate shelters". But not the private pools of private houses.
One of the companies, Aguatrans, located in the Vallès region, in the metropolitan area, receives between 150 and 200 calls from private individuals every day, as reported by RAC1 yesterday. The average to fill a private pool is about 50 cubic meters of drinking water. In larger ones, in urban areas or in communities of neighbors, this figure can be quadrupled.
Some of the requests come from municipalities in areas affected by the Generalitat's drought plan in the exceptionality phase, which expressly prohibits filling swimming pools of houses. "We look at the Government map, and if they are in a municipality with a red traffic light, we tell them that we cannot transport drinking water to fill their swimming pool", explains Carles Esteve, head of the Maddle company, located in area of Tarragona. In their case they receive about thirty calls every day.
"They haven't stopped calling for two weeks. The customer already knows that we cannot fill the pool with tap water if it is in a prohibited area, but they try", explains Gervasio Martínez (Aguatrans). In the municipalities in a situation of exceptionality "no swimming pool can be filled in any way", reminds the ACA. The limitation applies to all sources of water, be it potable, from the general network, from wells or other catchments, "including tankers", they add.
The majority of municipalities where swimming pools cannot be filled are in the Barcelona area, three out of four, but the veto also affects part of the counties of Girona. A population of six million residents, with thousands of private swimming pools in villas.
The companies specializing in the transport of drinking water say that they are prioritizing the sending of tankers to municipalities that have supply problems, so they are saying no to most requests to fill swimming pools of houses, even if they come from municipalities where it is legal to do so.
Then preference is given to individuals who need to fill tanks with tap water in areas that are running out of drinking water due to the drought, many in houses far from urban centers.
Dozens of Catalan municipalities are already asking for drinking water tankers to supply their residents. There is no updated record on a Catalan scale of the towns that are in this situation. A total of 27 councils have already contracted tankers before the second half of 2022: nine in the province of Lleida, eight in Tarragona, seven in Barcelona and three in Girona. The ACA gives the aid after the municipalities contract and pay for the transport of drinking water out of their own pockets. The list of towns with cisterns has not stopped growing due to the drought. Precisely, the growing demand for tankers to transport drinking water is forcing companies to increase services and trips. The company Maddle calculates that it is already transporting 550,000 liters of drinking water per day. A small part are swimming pools. In the summer they plan to double the shifts.
Yes, they are filling swimming pools with tankers in the municipalities where it is allowed, such as Camp de Tarragona. In these cases, the calendar has been brought forward due to the fear of private individuals of the extension of the restrictions. "Before, we started filling pools every year for Saint John, not in April," adds Maddle.
Part of the demand to fill swimming pools comes from municipalities where it is legal to do so because they are outside the exceptional situation. Other individuals fill the pool here with the running water that reaches their home.
“They want water of any kind so that their pool is not damaged; we bring seawater to swimming pools that have been empty for a long time", adds Martínez (Aguatrans). With the heat, if many months pass, cracks may appear in the sole of the pool.
They must be filled with drinking water if you want to comply with health regulations, remember the companies dedicated to the transport of drinking water. However, some companies offer the possibility of transporting "water for swimming pools".
