The Barcelona City Council is stepping on the accelerator so that the works to reform the phreatic water distribution network begin as soon as possible. Municipal sources reported this Sunday that Mayor Jaume Collboni has just signed an emergency decree that will allow up to ten months for the start of work that will increase the volume of ground water available in the city by 20%.
We are talking about nearly 200 million liters a year, 0.2 cubic hectometres. This is a very considerable amount, especially since Barcelona uses around 1,100,000,000 liters – 1.1 hm3 – of water from the underground every year. This municipal investment will be close to 14.4 million euros.
Groundwater is neither drinkable nor can it be made potable. They are not suitable for human consumption. But they will improve the living conditions of thousands of trees in the city and will also be used to clean the streets and squares. The problem with Barcelona's groundwater distribution system is that it does not reach all the green areas of the city.
One of the first measures taken by the Consistory to deal with this drought was to multiply the use of tanker trucks. But even this effort cannot guarantee the survival of thousands of trees and palm trees. The City Council has already established as priority the examples of the most unique axes, those of the large avenues that have green areas and those of the historic gardens.
The system improvements won't be fully operational until next year. In any case, the truth is that no one can venture how long this drought will last, and the truth is that at this moment it only seems clear that the clouds of the future will not be like those of other times.
The reform of the phreatic water distribution system was already planned in the Endreça plan of the municipal government. In fact, in order for Barcelona to deal with climate change in better conditions, the Consistory has been working for years to make much better use of underground water.
And the declaration of emergency due to the drought just signed by the Generalitat allows the City Council to resort to emergency measures to speed up the process. In this way, the work, which will be carried out in six different parts of the city, can begin throughout March. The new systems will all be in operation next year.
Mayor Collboni also wanted to recognize the sacrifices of Barcelona residents in the presentation of this measure. "It is very difficult to ask them to reduce water consumption even more, but we have to do it." Mayor Collboni expects the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, to explain to him today what measures the Central Government is preparing to guarantee the supply of water. "We still don't have official evidence of the initiative to bring water from the Sagunto desalination plant this summer." Minister Ribera will also meet today with the Councilor for Climate Action, David Mascort.
The most outstanding intervention of this plan will be the one carried out in Montjuïc. The City Council will invest seven million euros in this mountain, which will increase groundwater consumption by 50,000 m3 per year. It will involve the construction of a new reservoir in the surroundings of the Joan Brossa gardens and of two large pipelines, one that will connect this reservoir to the network of the Poble Sec neighborhood and another that will link the castle of Montjuïc with the surroundings of the.
The Consistory also highlights the action to be taken around the green axis of Calle Consell de Cent. The City Council will invest nearly four million euros here in order to join the Glòries groundwater reservoir with that of Joan Miró Park. The groundwater recovered at this point will be used throughout the Eixample district, a side of Barcelona where this resource barely reaches at the moment.
The plan that Mayor Collboni's government is accelerating also foresees actions in the areas of Can Batlló, Alfons el Magnànim and the Royal Palace. The Consistory will also allocate more than one million euros to the chlorination of these waters with the aim of improving their quality.
Municipal sources also detailed that after the Generalitat declared a drought emergency, the City Council activated its own protocol, which limits watering to survival, always with non-potable water. In fact, municipal services have already reduced the use of drinking water by 60% compared to the normal situation.
At the moment consumption is limited to 200 liters per inhabitant per day in all municipalities affected by the drought situation, an amount that takes into account domestic, industrial and commercial uses. But since Barcelona's consumption last year was close to 172 liters per inhabitant per day, the City Council does not foresee any effects linked to the supply of drinking water for citizens' consumption for the time being.
