When Putin decided to invade Ukraine in February 2022, he did not know it - a new era was being opened regarding the production, distribution and use of energy in the world. The cut in gas and oil from Russia has not constipated Europe, which has overcome the winter cold in exchange for voluntary adjustments or taxes on consumption due to the exorbitant price of home and business energy.
It was not taken into account that the problem would not be the shortage of energy but the lack of water with a long drought that affects the whole of southern Europe and whose consequences can be dramatic in many areas, but especially in Catalonia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands.
A drought summit was held, I don't know why the water summit was not called, and the parties did not agree. The main problem in Catalonia, according to President Aragonès, is water. But the priority speech remains independence, now agreeing to a referendum with the State which is the same as admitting that it will not take place. But it will be the subject of upcoming campaigns.
The lack of water ruins the agri-food sector, makes food more expensive and will turn fruit and vegetables into a luxury. What can be done? Catalonia, according to an editorial in this newspaper on the 15th, loses 24% of its drinking water due to leaks in the canalization system, which is equivalent to 34 cubic hectometres with which it would be enough to fill the now languid Sau swamp. I observe an aversion to the great public work that ends up harming the ordinary citizen. The budget was approved with the promise demanded by Salvador Illa's socialists to build a section of the B-40 between Sabadell and Terrassa and, in addition, the expansion of El Prat airport. I am not aware that any progress has been made on these two projects.
The ideology of the environmental police who are the ones who rule the country from the administration, aside from the governments that change their political color and come and go as the polls decide, they have in mind an idyllic country, landscaped, with the same fauna of Eden, without touching anything, that the branches of the pruning are not burned, that the land is cultivated with the plow and that the weeds are not dried with products that do not harm the environment. Not quite like that, but almost.
The great Catalan bourgeoisie of the 19th century promoted great projects that we still live by today. The Girona, natives of Tàrrega, according to the historian Lluïsa Pla i Toldrà, founded the Bank of Barcelona, built the Canal d'Urgell, the railway network with native capital, built the Liceu, the University of Barcelona and the neo-Gothic facade of the cathedral of Barcelona. They laid out roads and bridges. The Mancomunitat de Prat de la Riba designed from 1914 the basic structures that have shaped the country's progress and social transformation.
What great public work does the Generalitat have in hand or is it planning now? I do not know. Hopefully, at least, it will execute the items that are approved in the State and Catalonia budgets. At the end of last year, the Generalitat had yet to execute 45% of the budgeted investments.
Governing a country is not talking about right and wrong, but taking care of small and big things. If water is a priority, can't we reach agreements in the short and medium term that reduce the ravages of a drought that will punish the weakest and leave many lands barren? Less cheap rhetoric and more government work.
