The director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), Samuel Reyes, said yesterday in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio that there are municipalities that spend more water than they should and he mentioned the case of Peralada, the whose consumption is equivalent to that of the 30 smallest municipalities in Catalonia. Specifically, according to ACA statistics, the figure consumed in June in this municipality of around 2,000 registered inhabitants was 493 liters per inhabitant per day.
A figure that "can be improved, of which we are not proud", but which can be nuanced, according to the mayor, Miquel Brugat. "The statistics do not take into account the tourist character of the municipality and the second residence, which is remarkable, where many people live who are not registered", he justifies. He explains that the ACA data is based on a slightly increased census of 2,135 inhabitants. "But between tourist accommodation, hotels, rural houses and second homes, we estimate that this population should be higher, with 3,658 inhabitants", he details. Based on this figure, Brugat explains that his municipality would have an average consumption per inhabitant per day of 227 liters, a figure that still exceeds the maximum allowed in an emergency scenario such as the one to come. Part of the water consumed can be lost in watering gardens or filling swimming pools.
Something difficult for small councils like this to control. "We have no means of knowing whether a neighbor has watered or not," says Brugat. A complaint that the affected councils of the Empordà communicated yesterday in a telematic meeting to Samuel Reyes. The mayor of Sant Pere Pescador and president of the Regional Council of Alt Empordà, Agustí Badosa, finds it difficult to enforce the restrictions, despite the creation of a model ordinance. Dolors Pons, mayor of Viladamat, a municipality that with 378 l/inhabitant per day exceeds the maximum 200 liters set by the decree for the new scenario, is also upset by the ACA data. According to statements collected by the Catalan News Agency (ACN), he says that the numbers "do not match" those provided by the Consistory. Still, he acknowledges that action needs to be taken, although it can't be left to councils like his, with few staff and tools to enforce the restrictions.
Samuel Reyes reiterated, as on Wednesday, that he is not in favor of water cuts in the 24 municipalities, most of them in the Alt Empordà, which from next week will enter the critical phase of the Special Drought Plan. The emergency scenario, among other things, sets the maximum amount of water consumption per inhabitant per day at 200 liters. A figure that exceeds more than 50% of the 22 municipalities in this region of northern Catalonia that depend on the Fluvià-Muga aquifer, which is at the lowest level recorded due to the lack of precipitation in the area. "I would avoid the cuts, but you also have to look at the casuistry and each municipality is very different", assured Reyes, who recalled that when entering this phase there are still months of margin with guaranteed water.
