Urban gardens demand access to irrigation with groundwater to save themselves

Urban gardens and community green spaces are also affected by the restrictions derived from the drought emergency situation.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
17 March 2024 Sunday 23:17
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Urban gardens demand access to irrigation with groundwater to save themselves

Urban gardens and community green spaces are also affected by the restrictions derived from the drought emergency situation. Watering them has been prohibited since the beginning of February and those responsible fear that all the cultivated plants will end up dying. Those who ignore the prohibition risk being punished.

About 200 people who take care of these types of spaces in the city of Barcelona demonstrated this Saturday morning along the green axis of Consell de Cent to demand that the City Council provide them with access to groundwater and the necessary tools to be able to maintain their crops in the current context of drought. In the Catalan capital there are nearly 200 urban gardens, some of them with projects linked to social and integration entities. The figure rises to almost half a thousand if school gardens are taken into account.

One of the solutions proposed by the members of the entities is the creation of structures that allow rainwater to be accumulated to water the orchards. The use of gray water could also be an option they put on the table. In addition, they are committed to being able to install drip irrigation systems to adapt to water scarcity without spoiling their cultivated land in the middle of the urban environment.

Members of the platform that brings together neighbors and school family associations against the felling of a part of the Joan Miró park trees to install the logistics zone for the extension works of the L8 of Ferrocarrils de la Unión also participated in the same protest. Generalitat (FGC).

Although the Territori department already informed them that the option of occupying one of the Fira de Barcelona palaces in Montjuïc was unviable, the neighbors are not throwing in the towel and are preparing new protests coinciding with the electoral campaign. The occupation of the space is planned progressively starting in the summer.