The dimensions and appearance of the Mequinensa marsh, bordering the Catalan region of Ribera d'Ebre, are impressive. A gigantic contrast in the midst of the worst drought in history in Catalonia, with the nine reservoirs in the internal basin at an average of 16.9% capacity. The Mequinensa reservoir is at 81%, with a reserve of 1,115 cubic hectometres (hm³) of water.
On a cold and foggy day, silence dominates the winter landscape. With almost no soul, a few sports fishing enthusiasts navigate the Riba-roja reservoir, at 97.6% of capacity (204.8 hm³), with three small motor boats and a pedal canoe. Miniatures in front of the huge swamp wall.
Dubbed the Sea of Aragon by the Aragonese, the storms and precipitation this late autumn in Upper Aragon, Navarre and La Rioja have turned the situation of a reservoir that little more than a year ago reached the historical minimum (22%). The hydroelectric plant was about to stop, something that had never happened since it was inaugurated (1966), with Franco present.
Mequinensa, connected to the Riba-roja and Flix reservoirs (80%), is the main point of reference for activating the drought emergency phase in the Catalan municipalities that drink from the Ebro. Thanks to the rains upstream, the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE), a public body dependent on the Ministry for Ecological Transition with full powers over the river, deactivated the emergency a month ago.
The largest reservoir in the entire Ebro watershed is the main reference taken by the CHE for a wide territory, the Terres de l'Ebre, the Camp de Tarragona and part of the Baix Penedès, supplied by the water of the mini transfer of the Ebro. A large and diverse region with nearly seventy municipalities that depend on the Tarragona Water Consortium (CAT), the body that manages the mini-transfer.
The situation is now much more favorable, but in the spring and summer the irrigators of the Ebro delta were left with only half of the Ebro water concession by order of the CHE, something never before view and with serious consequences on the rice paddies and the ecosystem of the whole wetland.
Although it is recent, it looks like a mirage over the river. The huge turbines of the Mequinensa hydroelectric power plant turn to produce electricity in a normal situation. "We didn't foresee a recovery like this, we could even have filled the swamp more, but we always leave a buffer to be able to slow the entry of more water and that there is no impact downstream", explains Ángel García, responsible for control centers of Enel Green Power (Endesa). They do not rule out that, if there is more precipitation in Upper Aragon, Navarre and the Basque Country, key for Mequinensa, floodgates will open and water will be released in winter. "This happens half the year and it's not a bad thing", adds García.
Two large jets of water go out from the Mequinensa power plant to the Riba-roja swamp, in a routine maneuver when turbines are used. Whirlpools of water form on the marsh, which the fishermen try to take advantage of. The reservoir of Mequinensa is famous worldwide for the size of the fish; it is considered the mecca of catfish in Europe.
A minimal sheet of water seeps through the wall of the swamp, below the six large, closed sluice gates. This small water filtration, which takes advantage of the Riba-roja marsh, takes place when the marsh is about to fill, due to the pressure of the accumulated water, explains one of the operators. He himself remembers when the six floodgates had to be opened in the winter of 2015 to release in a controlled manner about 1,500 cubic meters of water per second due to the increase in the flow of the Ebro after abundant precipitation and the thawing of the river up "The Ebro is a river of great floods, but with the drought we have forgotten that", says García.
"The Ebro is another world", comments a fisherman on the banks of the river. No sign, apparently, of the drought. The dining room of Las Tres Parrillas restaurant in Mequinensa is presided over by an immense photograph of the swamp releasing a huge amount of water, in February 2015.
Like a chimera in times of extreme drought. The Catalan Water Agency (ACA) insists that, if it continues without rain, in June the shipment of ships loaded with water from the mini transfer of the Ebro from the port of Tarragona to Barcelona will be activated. A plan that is opposed by a majority of the Terres de l'Ebre, with the Plataforma en Defensa de l'Ebre (PDE) at the head, the movement that already opposed the temporary interconnection in 2008, but with a pipe, from the mini transfer of the Ebro with the Ter-Llobregat system to deal with the drought. Then came the rain, abundant, after the prayers at La Moreneta, and the project was kept in the drawer.
The PDE insists that "there is no water left in the Ebro" and gives as examples the fragility of the Ebro delta and the need to guarantee a much greater ecological flow in the final stretch of the Ebro. The platform has been very critical of the management of the marshes due to the retention of sediments.
The water from the mini transfer of the Ebro has made it possible to circumvent the restrictions, despite the drought in Tarragona, the second most populated area in Catalonia. The Costa Daurada suffered severe restrictions due to a lack of drinking water before the mini-transfer was approved, four decades ago.
A temporary connection with the water of the Ebro, approved by the CHE at the request of the Generalitat for a period of six months that can be extended, has put an end to the nightmare of two small towns in the Priorat, Vilella Baixa and Bisbal de Falset, where in the summer they ran out of water. The connection with the CAT, within a year, will also put an end to the torture of the 2,800 residents of Espluga de Francolí (Conca de Barberà), the Catalan municipality that has suffered the most from the drought, with daily supply cuts since 2022.
The Catalan Government insists on ruling out the connection of the Ebro water with the Ter-Llobregat system. The recovery of the Mequinensa swamp and the situation of the Ebro basin will predictably become a controversial argument in favor of those who see these waters, now generous, as the salvation table for the metropolitan area of Barcelona and part of Girona.
