Urgent measures to respond to the lack of water in the central region of Catalonia, Girona and the Costa Brava are increasing every day. Foment del Treball endorses and supports the proposal of four professional associations to make an express connection of the water network of the Ebro del Consorci d'Aigües de Tarragona (CAT) with the metropolitan network of Barcelona. In addition, the Catalan employers' association is asking the Government to authorize that hotel swimming pools can be filled "to avoid the economic collapse of the tourism sector" and to speed up temporary employment regulation files and compensations and aid to the sectors affected industrialists if they have to stop forced by the water restriction.
The recent rains have not helped to recover the level of the Ter and Llobregat reservoirs. And, meanwhile, the proposal to connect the Ebro network with the Barcelona region is gaining new support. Foment del Treball points out that this solution is endorsed by different professional associations, as well as engineering companies and construction companies. In addition, it is assumed that, as proposed by the Intercollegiate Drought Observatory (the professional associations that proposed the idea), the transfer of water would only be activated in emergency situations.
"There is no technical or economic problem to carry out this interconnection of networks, since in eight months the infrastructure can be ready and in full operation", says Salvador Sedó, from Foment.
The businessmen are in favor of lifting the restrictions that prevent the swimming pools of hotels and other tourist establishments from being filled. They even suggest modifying the special drought plan to be able to fill them by transporting water collected in other territories that are not in a drought situation, something that is now prohibited. "We cannot lose the tourist season, and even less with announcements outside of common sense, such as banning the filling of swimming pools, since this represents between 1% and 2% of the total water consumption of a hotel establishment, while that banning it has a very important impact on tourist reserves", says Sedó. Along these same lines, they see the need to "encourage the use of treated seawater" when filling swimming pools. The tourism sector directly represents 12% of GDP.
Like other sectors, employers are demanding from the Government the implementation of the infrastructure and investments agreed in the law on Urgent Measures against the Drought that was approved in May 2023. And to avoid further delays, they demand that these actions be addressed through the emergency route. Investment projects in the Besòs basin are highlighted here as priorities, especially the expansion of the Trinitat drinking water treatment station (Barcelonès), which is suffering from delays.
The employer assumes another key request from the companies: favoring the reuse of regenerated water for industrial uses. Specifically, it calls for actions to be taken to deploy the regulations that allow it, which requires the involvement of the Department of Health. The transport sector, slaughterhouses and many other areas of industry claim to be able to reuse regenerated water in order not to waste potable flows on cleaning (trucks, floors...).
Foment also supports the farmers' demand that it be taken into account that farms that have invested in more efficient irrigation systems and with less water use "don't have such important restrictions".
There are many sectors at risk of being greatly harmed by the restrictions in place, so measures are called for to mitigate them in the face of the risk of an avalanche of economic damage. Companies are once again recalling the proposal to create the figure of "essential sectors", those that should be exempt from restrictions or favored with relief measures. The request aims to avoid the impact of different measures, such as the drop in pressure in the meat sector, in food distribution and in many others that need a lot of water for equipment maintenance. The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has said that it will attend to these requests.
Finally, the employers' association demands that the Government of the Generalitat establish compensatory measures in the event that, due to the restrictions, there are stoppages in production. In this circumstance, the application of employment regulation files (ERTO) should be "speeded up".
Foment considers that the increase in the water fee should be suspended as it is contained in the bill of fiscal, financial and administrative measures of 2024 approved by the Government, which includes an increase of between 20% and 40% for the different users.
