The director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), Sam Reyes, does not rule out declaring drought alert in the metropolitan area of Barcelona “in the middle or end of September” if it doesn’t rain. In statements to Catalunya Ràdio collected by Europa Press, he assured that if this situation were reached and the water reserves of the reservoirs that feed the city were reduced below 40%, due to the lack of rain, they would begin to be applied ” limitations” in certain uses of water in the Barcelona metropolitan area but that would not affect the mouthwater.
In fact, in some areas of Catalonia, such as the Empordà and the headwaters of the Ter and Gaià rivers, measures have already begun to be applied to try to reduce urban water consumption.
Reyes has remarked that, in the case of Barcelona and its metropolitan area, these limitations would be, among others, the garden watering twice a weeknot being able to clean the street with hoses, a maximum daily allocation per inhabitant of 250 liters – between 115 and 130 is usually spent – and reductions in agriculture, livestock and facilities such as fields of use.
The director of the ACA has considered that, if it were necessary to declare the alert in the Barcelona area, the citizens “will not notice it at the tap” in September or October, and has said that without the desalination plants the percentage of the reservoirs would be 3 or 4 percentage points lower.
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Reyes has recalled that water is a limited resource, has advocated its proper use and has pointed out that habits must be improved to increase efficiency in the home. He explained that the current drought situation is very similar to the one experienced in 2018, but that it is not as “critical” as the one in 2007 and 2008, when the reservoirs were below 20% — now they are in 42%–.
The head of the water agency has said that there are currently some thirty Catalan municipalities with water restrictions, and has guaranteed supply in municipalities connected to supra-municipal networks for “a few months”.