Barcelona. Lack of water has been a problem for the Spanish tourist region of Catalonia for years. Recently the situation has worsened drastically. But there is good news just before the summer season begins.
In the Spanish region of Catalonia, the state of emergency declared due to water shortages was declared over after just over three months. The Barcelona regional government stated that the rains of recent days had led to a significant improvement in the situation.
Reservoirs are now full by an average of 25 percent, it was said. At the beginning of the year, this figure temporarily fell to well below 15 percent. For comparison purposes: two years ago the average was around 60%.
Several restrictions can now be lifted and others relaxed, but the water problem is far from over, warned spokeswoman Patrícia Plaja. The Minister of Climate Policy of the holiday region, also very popular among Germans, David Mascort, highlighted that Catalonia is going through the worst drought since records began, more than three years ago, a century ago. But it is certain that there will be no new emergency at least until the beginning of next year.
As the state of emergency is lifted, the household consumption limit will increase from 200 to 230 liters per person per day. Agriculture, industry and the tourism sector will also have more water available. The filling of the vast majority of private and public swimming pools will again be permitted.
A state of emergency has been in force across much of Catalonia since the beginning of February. Some reservoirs in northeastern Spain were practically empty at the time. The measure affected around six million of the total of around eight million residents of the so-called autonomous community of the capital Barcelona and more than 200 other municipalities.
The central and regional governments want to jointly finance the construction of two seawater desalination plants in Catalonia, with a total value of almost 470 million euros, scheduled to come into operation in 2028 and 2029, respectively. Catalonia also wants to install a floating plant and twelve additional mobile desalination plants for around 100 million euros, most of which are expected to be ready for operation in the coming months.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240507-99-949289/3 (dpa)