Drought emergency in Barcelona region: How long will residents accept water restrictions? | DW News

Authorities in northeastern Spain have declared a drought emergency for the city of Barcelona and the surrounding area. Some six million people will face tight restrictions on their use of water as a three-year dry period shows no sign of abating.

Follow DW on social media:

[lucasjames]

How are there are already multiple comments asking or implying that the church was initially built underwater? Wtf? A reservoir was built which flooded the valley containing the church, and now the reservoir has gone so low that the ruins of the church are reappearing.

[faraboverubieskerry]

Can someone explain why they are restricting livestock water usage by 50%, agriculture water use by 80% but water parks and recreational facilities by only 25%? Why would they risk their local food supply more than the local swimming pool or water park?!

[tibsyy]

In Switzerland there is no snow either! At high mountain resorts it's 8 Celsius in January! 1500-1700 above see level! Insane!

[andi_audhd]

I was living in Cape Town when we had the major drought measures in 2018. Cape Town has multiple sources of water for the damns, and yet it went down to 29%, but was considered barely useable. We were months away from a complete cut off, with the government promising to cut off the water supply completely, when everyone got together to drastically cut down their water usage. While the drought was experienced across South Africa, it was Cape Town’s government that took the proactive approach. You could see boards on the highways advising you to save water. Bathrooms in public spaces shut the majority of the taps, leaving only 2 open taps. The government ran major communication campaigns. One of the main ones “if the yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down”. When washing the dishes, we used 2 buckets - one to wash and one to rinse the dishes. Initially we couldn’t water our garden, fill the pool, or wash our cars, but as the drought progressed, these were prohibited. When we went on holiday to Port Elizabeth, during that time, there was no advertising or communication messaging in public places, and you could see the impact of the drought. It’s crucial to respond to a drought proactively and with haste, getting everyone in the city/country on board. The government, placed in this situation, can’t afford to delay to introduce drastic measures and they must be prepared to increase those measures if the water usage isn’t reduced enough. While Cape Town has received rain fall since 2018, it remains in a drought status, as we don’t get enough rainfall anymore.

[vitormv]

If only scientists had warned us with decades in advance, we could have prepared!

[basmca]

Meanwhile The Netherlands had the wettest year in history in 2023. Januari is the first month since september that we had less than 200% of the already high average amount of rain.

[MalcolmRose-lb]

It's not just Catalonia - as the reporter mentioned, Andalusia is also suffering. Several towns to the East of Malaga have their water turned off overnight as the local reservoir is down to 7.5% of capacity September last year - I presume the images of the person showering at the beach is stock footage as here those showers were the first to go. The overall level in Malaga province is also low - tourists in Torremolinos and further West of Malaga were already starting to notice the issue last September as the initial cuts started to bite. This year the Costa del Sol is likely to have major difficulties.

And the sad thing is that it is regional government incompetence that caused the problem - about 2005 they pretty much stopped regulating farmers water use so lots of unlicensed wells were sunk draining the aquifers. The Guardia Civil do nothing to enforce the regulations unless a politician makes an issue of it, or someone issues a denuncia - nobody in the countryside issues a denuncia because they're all related to each other. And politicians value the agricultural vote so they were too gutless to do anything. Measures to increase supply were started but not finished. When the provincial government finally started to address the problems 18 months ago (bear in mind the water levels in the local reservoir have been declining year on year for at least a decade) the combined cost of several of the small steps taken to complete projects already started but left half finished was less than €500K. The president of the Junta announced in May (during an election campaign) that he would make a decision on the location of a new desalination plant in Velez-Malaga by the end of June - seven months later and still no decision. And then after that it will be several years to actually build it of course.

[FranciscoGonzalez-xfxd]

Tired to hear that desalinazion is to energy intense, in Spain we could have free energy from the is so simple. In Germany people use more solar energy that in Spain... it is ridiculous

[IvarDaigon]

200L a day per person is not a serious effort.

Most of Southern Australia has had a target of 155L a day for more than 15 years now and the people adjusted without much effort.
People just need to learn a live sustainably and stop wasting so many resources.

I typically use less than 75L a day and that is for my entire house (including garden).

[busysaru]

Prepare for when the rains DO come by building the infrastructure to catch and slowly release rainfall and runoff. Permaculture is one way. Another is building berms and swales (ditches) on contour and directing the water into ponds, etc. Many ways to do this. Ice suptas can also be used to build up glaciers at higher altitudes. But of course going solar, using heat pumps and better insulation help as well. They we have to stop all the methane leaks at oil/gas sites and further reduce carbon use. Building up bike infrastructure using Dutch design would also help.

[patrikricci]

Just take a ride through all of southern Iberic coast…Every hotel has a well filled pool, golf resorts have lush green acres and villas have rich tropical front yards…But taxpayer citizens have to collect bottled water like in 3rd world country

[Tom-sgiv]

They forgot to mention 25% of the water is lost by leaks in the pipelines. 134 cubic hectometres in 2022.

[ThePapawhisky]

That’s rough. I feel for them. When it comes to water conservation, it is not the showers. It is raising beef. And irrigating for water intensive crops.

[NinjaOrchids]

I am surprised as to why a desert can have golf courses but huge cities in Spain have not accommodated for eventualities with desalination plants. This problem was discussed in the late, 90s during the 6 year drought in S'ern Spain

[pingdingdongpong]

What a surprise. I wish someone told us about global warming earlier. 🙄

[zamilahamedtahsan]

I'm worried this year, the summer is going be even more unbearable 😢

[dawnstcentury]

The sick part is that we continue to take vacations there; wasting even more water.
I just biked by this ad at a bus stop;: 599 Euros for 8 days in Curacao (flight+hotel) - I live in the Netherlands - Our insane tourism should stop.

[tjMooMoo]

You cannot impose restrictions only when water reserves run dry.

You have to implement changes and continue with them in definitely. So much water is wasted on a daily basis and so we should determine was is the maximum level that households NEED to use.

[francis]

I'm very surprised they didn't mention the role of El Niño, it dries Europe.

[freddieventura]

Catalonia has always voted against the creation of a Unified Water Management Bureaugh in Spain in order to tackle these situations, as they arent normally the ones worse off regarding to water availability. Now they have a tough year, and the Spanish goverment is planing sending ships over with water, water that they negated to the rest of Spain for years.
Yes, the Spanish goverment is currently held on power thanks to the asymetry of votes of the Voting system, that gives Catalan pro-indepenent parties way more power in the Parliament.
I am in favour of giving Catalonia the water they need, but also need to do steps to create that Iberian bureaugh (also with Portugal).
But pro-independentist parties got such a terrible agenda. God save them from that cancer, seriously