The Associació de Municipis de l'Arc Metropolità has asked the Generalitat to authorize town halls to be able to fill public swimming pools this summer so that they can act as climate shelters. "We understand the situation of drought, but having swimming pools in summer to face the heat is a public health issue," the mayors of Vilafranca have defended. The entity has agreed to urge the Government to draw up a new drought decree agreed with the municipalities where this possibility is collected and also the use of sources.
The current decree on drought prohibits filling swimming pools, although they can continue to function if they are full and have circuits where the water recirculates.
The municipal entity has met in Vilafranca del Penedès in an act in which they have approved a resolution by the executive committee.
The document highlights the lack of investment in water infrastructure by the Administration of Catalonia and calls for a crash plan to prevent new exceptional measures from being decreed in the future due to the lack of water.
The municipalities share the need to decree extraordinary measures in the face of the drought situation, but at the same time they consider that Decree Law 1/2023 of February 28 -of urgent measures to deal with the drought in the area of the river basin district of Catalonia - transfers all the pressure and responsibility of the actions to the local world.
The decree addresses a whole series of restrictions on the use of water in public facilities, the prohibition of filling public swimming pools and ornamental fountains or limitations on irrigation, among other measures, and a series of sanctions are established in the municipalities if they do not are met.
They denounce that it does not incorporate obligations for the Generalitat, which is the competent administration in the matter, nor any investment plan to deal with it.
They denounce the lack of foresight since not all the desalination plants are available that should guarantee the water supply in cases of future water crises.
The president of Arc Metropolità and mayor of Sabadell (Vallès Occidental), Marta Farrés, said that "the municipalities share the concern for the current drought situation, we are responsible and, as always, we are ready to be part of the solution".
"What seems to us to be unfair is that, once again, both the problem and the adoption of measures fall entirely on the city councils and the citizenry and, furthermore, without first speaking with the municipalities," Farrés claims.
The president maintains that the Generalitat "must assume investment commitments and speak with the local world to see what is the best way to deal with the situation."
The mayor of Martorell (Baix Llobregat), Xavier Fonollosa, and the mayor of Vilafranca del Penedès, Pere Regull, also took part in the meeting.
The executive committee has also requested, both from the State and the Generalitat, legal reforms necessary to improve the financing of town halls.
