The tourism sector of Lloret de Mar, the second municipality in Catalonia with the most hotel beds only behind Barcelona, has decided to join forces and buy a mobile desalination plant to fill swimming pools and guarantee mouthwatering water during the tourist season.
The forecast is that it will come into operation next May, just before the start of the season which, according to the sector, this year was anticipated much better than last season. The municipality annually receives more than one million travelers who make approximately five million overnight stays.
However, the drought and the message that can be conveyed to the international market are of great concern to a municipality that receives 60% of its tourists through tour operators. "We cannot afford to lose a single day; we have to run so as not to lose the markets and not be forced to have to close our companies," explained this morning the president of the hoteliers of Lloret de Mar, Enric Dotras.
At the moment, no accommodation in Lloret de Mar has had to close, although the administration has already activated the ERTO due to drought. Some are considering delaying the opening of the business.
Dotras considers that the desalination plant "is the most agile and safest solution" to fill swimming pools, guarantee drinking water and move forward with future restrictions when phase 2 or 3 of the drought emergency plan comes into effect, which could lead to cuts. of water.
The equipment will have a capacity to treat 50 cubic meters of water every hour and will be located on one side of the Gran beach in Lloret de Mar. It will not capture water from the sea but from a well, and will cost 1.5 million euros that will be paid in full by the tourism sector itself through the Gremi d'Hostaleria de Lloret de Mar. The organization brings together 95% of hotel accommodation in the municipality and hopes that the entire amount will be added to the payment of this desalination plant, which is voluntary.
The purchase has already been closed with a Valencian company, the same one that installed the mobile desalination plant they have in Port de la Selva and the forecast is for it to be ready within a period of about ninety days.
To fill or refill the pools of hotels, campsites, apartments or accommodation for tourist use, only one fifth of the plant's production would be required, just under 10 cubic meters per hour.
The water would be transferred through tanks to the tanks that each tourist accommodation will create and from there it would be poured into the swimming pools. This water resource could also be used for water park facilities.
The Gremi wants to allocate the excess water to the conventional network for drinking water, but to do so it assures that it requires a permit from the Catalan Water Agency (ACA). "Let's hope that we don't have problems and that we don't have to throw away the excess water, it would be absurd," explains Dotras.
The Gremi d'Hotels of Lloret de Mar trusts that its model can be "replicable" to other areas of the Costa Brava coast, also affected by the drought emergency phase. There are sixteen municipalities that are in this position.
A measure, however, that could be rejected by the ACA. The drought decree is clear. In the emergency phase, only pools that are prepared for that use can be filled with seawater.
