The most affected areas will enter the “exceptional phase” today, which may involve new measures in agriculture or garden irrigation
Girona and Barcelona are the provinces with the lowest water reserves
The Generalitat will activate this Tuesday New measures to fight the drought in Catalonia. As EL PERIÓDICO has learned, the Government’s plan to deal with the current extreme scenario involves change phaseto that of exceptionalityand try to contain the predictions of the experts before the lack of rain. Specifically, the most affected areas will go from the ‘alert’ phase -the blue light- to the ‘exceptional’ one -the amber light-, a fact that may imply restrictions in the agricultural irrigation or gardens and green areas of the cities, as well as in the consumption industrial. The specific measures will be announced at noon after the Consell Executiu.
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The Government will approve at this meeting a decree in which the affectation of the measures will be regulated after a meeting of the Sequera Interdepartmental Commission that the ‘president’ will lead Pere Aragones. The commission was created in August last year to address the lack of accumulated rainfall.
The new restrictions come after the decision that came out this weekend that the water from the sau swamp (at 15% of its capacity) moved to Susqueda to guarantee your quality and prevent it from rotting by mixing with the mud at the bottom. Sau’s situation shows how critical the outlook is. These are the keys to the drought scenario.
The drought began with coastline and pre-coastal of Barcelona, but it has grown and right now it covers almost all the regions of Barcelona and Girona. “are zones catastrophic drought and it takes a lot of rain to turn it around,” warns vincent altavaexpert in research and models of the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya.
The headwaters of the rivers ter and Mugafor example, have not had any major storms in the last year and accumulate the largest rainfall deficits: it has only rained about 70% of what was usual. In the Ter it is precisely where the reservoir of Sauin which this express emptying of water will be announced.
Last summer it rained a lot in part of the Ter hydrographic basin. The water, however, fell only in the Ripollès, and “what is needed is extensive and abundant rain, if not, little will be resolved,” Altava sentences.
The reservoirs are on average 28% of its capacity. at the end of February 2021 exceeded the 86%. In two years, the lack of constant rain has left images that have not been seen in Catalonia for a long time: the curious return to walk among the ruins of the old town of Sant Roma de Sau and they approach your Bell tower.
“The less water, the more chances it will rot,” remarks Vicent Altava. they had the hope that an intense storm will arrive because some models gave about 150mm in the Ter and Llobregat basins, but finally the storm will pass by and will fall on the sea.
In recent months, the aquifers and marshes in the northern half of Catalonia have gone into the alert phase and are now facing the exceptional scenario. Those who are in better conditions are those of the Tarragona regions.
“We are restless because there is little water and this complicates our work a lot“, recognize Josep Cuscounion water manager Union of Pagesos. They are one of the first groups affected by the drought: “If the exceptionality is decreed in the Muga basin, the situation can be sustained because basically there are fruit treesbut, if it also reaches the Llobregat, we will have problems“.
In the Ebre and the Segre, the situation is not so serious. However, according to Cuscó, some peasants in the area have stopped planting corn to reap foragewhich requires less water. They also suffer in case the consequences harm farmers: “The animals cannot be allowed to die.”
The last great drought in Catalonia dates back to 2008 (lasted from 2007 to 2009). At that time, the reserves dropped to the twenty%, a figure that is getting closer because the forecasts of the Servei Català de Meteorologia do not expect heavy rains either in the coming weeks or throughout March. Of course, it should not be ruled out that these models change suddenly.
The current drought plan contemplates some scenarios -normality, pre-alert, alert, exceptionality, emergency- that did not exist with the same names in the 2008 episode. But sources from the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua (ACA) assure that the equivalent of the exceptional phase It has not been activated since that moment, 15 years ago.
So, Altava says, “the global situation was worse than the current onebut the most critical points right now are more on the edge.”
“Our forecasts are clear: we have to get used to seeing less rain and higher temperatures“This is what we will have in the future, according to the Servei Català de Meteorologia, which is based on its own models and other world data. This past 2022without going any further, has been the warmest year in Catalonia since there are data, with a temperature that exceeded the average by 2.5 degrees -in Barcelona the average exceeded 19 degrees-.
Altava points out that the more heat, the faster water evaporates, something that makes the fight against the drought even more difficult. “We will have to change the way we manage water resources -warns-, in the future we cannot maintain the current consumption, it is as if a family that lived with 2,000 euros a month now earns 1,500 and wants to continue spending the same: it is impossible”.
They are waiting for us less rainy springs and autumns and a drier future in general: “We will have to see what we are willing to sacrifice to maintain (or reduce) our water consumption,” says Vicent Altava.