From the BBC:
“Catalonia: State of emergency
declared as region faces worst ever drought”
The Spanish region of Catalonia
has declared a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought on record. From
Thursday residents will be banned from washing their cars and filling up empty
swimming pools under a measures brought in to tackle the crisis. More than six
million Catalans will be affected across 200 towns and cities, including the
capital Barcelona. The restrictions were announced after reservoirs fell to
close to 16% of their capacity.
(Anna Casòliva Freixe)
"It's still not
raining," Anna Casòliva Freixe told the BBC, looking out of the window of
her bakery. "It's worrying if you don't have enough water." Anna
lives and works in Berga, a town high up in the mountains north of Barcelona
which has been hit hard by the drought. "We need water to make bread - we
need water to make the dough," she said. "But we need it at home as
well: for the washing machine, to shower and so on."
Spain is familiar with dry
conditions and other areas of the country are also suffering droughts,
including Andalusia in the south and the eastern region of Valencia. However,
Catalonia, which borders southern France, is less used to such conditions,
forcing officials to consider bringing in water by ship to Barcelona should it
run dry. This measure was previously adopted in 2008.
Other initial emergency
restrictions will include a sharp reduction in the use of water for crop
farming and industry, and the capping of water supplies per inhabitant per day.
Town halls can face fines for flouting these limits and there is scope for the
restrictions to be increased further. Just a few kilometres away from Berga,
the impact of the drought is all too visible. The la Baells reservoir, along
with others in the Ter-Llobregat basin system, provides water for Barcelona and
dozens of surrounding towns. Its currently filled far below capacity, with its
parched banks exposed.
"Barcelona and its
surrounding area are home to five or six million people and that population
density makes it a very vulnerable area," Anna Barnadas, secretary for
climate action in the Catalan government, told the BBC. She said that a Catalan
government drought strategy, drawn up in 2021, had already diversified the
region's water supply, making it less reliant on reservoirs and wells. Some
restrictions on water use have already been in place. Such measures, Ms
Barnadas said, allowed the authorities to delay the emergency measures. "We
realise that the state of emergency affects all sectors, it affects the whole
population and so it means, in this case, introducing some major
restrictions," she said. "It has been a priority for us to delay the
state of emergency but it is impossible to avoid it." Ms Barnadas said it
was too soon to be able to know whether the drought could be attributed to
climate change, although the Catalan government believes that to be the case. Climate
change does not cause all droughts, but increased heat in the atmosphere
exacerbates dry spells. Temperatures in the Mediterranean region are increasing
20% faster than the global average, according to the UN and rises are expected
to continue unless there are drastic cuts to emissions.
In Barcelona itself, the
drought's impact is less visible than in the nearby mountains. But decorative
fountains in the city have been switched off for the last year, and the
watering of public and private gardens is mostly prohibited. "I try to
save water in my daily life, having quick showers and this kind of thing,"
one local resident, Silvia Martínez, told the BBC. "But I'm afraid this
this is going to be something that is normal in the future."
Barcelona's status as Spain's top
tourist destination raises the question as to how it would handle the high
season if the drought were to continue into the summer. More than 12 million
people visited the city in 2023 and Marta Domènech i Tomàs, director general of
tourism for the government of Catalonia, told the BBC that 2024 could see even
more visitors. She said that the region was "really well prepared" to
receive tourists despite the drought and that the industry was making
adjustments to adapt to the shortage of water. Hotels have been taking measures
which range from informing guests about the need for careful water use, to
installing water counters in bathrooms and encouraging guests to reuse sheets
and towels. However, the mood among many Catalans is that things will get worse
before they get better. "It's one of those things where they've been
warning us for some time but we don't take much notice, and so we carry on with
our normal lives," said local man Pep Soler, as he headed to work in
central Barcelona. He added: "We're too used to certain privileges which
aren't altogether necessary and we need to reduce how much water we use."
^ This is sad to see. I have Relatives
in Catalonia who are suffering through this. ^
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