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Barcelona To Import Water
The scorching summer is not yet upon us, but Barcelona is already forced to import drinking water as part of an emergency plan to provide for the city as the tourist peak approaches.
Nearly 23 million litres of drinking water were delivered yesterday by the Sichem Defender tanker, the Guardian reports. This should be enough for 180,000 people for one day; a further six shiploads are due to arrive each month for three months in a scheme costing 22m euros.
Southern Spain is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years, with Barcelona the worst-hit region. Reservoirs are down to a quarter of normal capacity, and there are fears that if they fall to 15 percent the supply will have to be declared undrinkable, forcing restrictions on domestic tap use. City authorities have already turned off fountains and banned the use of hosepipes and filling of swimming pools.
Residents are calling for better "water management" from the government, including the mending of leaky reservoirs and pipes. A member of the Catalan Commercial Federation described the tanker's arrival as "the image and expression of failure." There are also claims that Spain's government and regions are playing politics with the issue: The Guardian describes it as a "water war" and it may have constitutional consequences for a nation of regions demanding varying degrees of autonomy like Spain.
"The Socialist government, which initially opposed water transfers from one region to another, executed a political U-turn and allowed water to be pumped into Catalonia from the river Ebro in the neighbouring region of Aragon.
"The move infuriated southern regions such as Murcia and Valencia, which asked for similar concessions. Both are significant agricultural areas, with a busy tourist season about to start, and expect their water supplies to be hit hard.
"Both areas, run by the opposition conservative Popular party, claim Spain's Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodrìguez Zapatero denied their requests for water transfers for political reasons.
"The Socialist government is following a controversial programme of building desalinisation plants, which they claim will provide a long-term solution to Spain's endemic water shortage. They have built six so far and plan a further 18. One is due to open outside Barcelona in May next year."
Water shortage has been described in the Daily Telegraph as "The great slow-burning, under-reported resource crisis of the 21st century."
Climate change, over-consumption and the criminally inefficient use of this most basic raw material are all to blame, wrote author Fred Pearce; nations like Australia are using their resources to the limit, while China's mighty rivers are now so over-used some rarely make it as far as the sea. Most of the Middle East, including Egypt, irrigated for millennia by the Nile, is the same. Commentators have predicted that drought could lead to conflict over supplies, as by 2025 3.5 billion people, half the world's population, could be living in water-scarce countries.
The Guardian lists a few examples of nations providing water exports:
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World news
Spain
Barcelona forced to import emergency water
· Southern regions say move politically biased
· Catalonia's reservoirs three-quarters empty
Graham Keeley in Barcelona
The Guardian, Wednesday May 14 2008 Article history
A tourist walks through what is barely a puddle in the Sagrada Familia Lake. Photograph: Xavier Bertral/EPA
The tanker Sichem Defender arrived at the port of Barcelona yesterday carrying something far more precious than its usual cargo of chemicals.
Nearly 23m litres of drinking water - enough for 180,000 people for a day - was the first delivery in an unprecedented emergency plan to help this parched corner of Spain ahead of the holiday season.
As the country suffers its worst drought since records began 60 years ago, Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, has been the worst-hit region. After months without adequate rainfall its reservoirs are down to just over a quarter of normal capacity. A year ago they stood at almost double that.
Nationally, reservoirs are around half full with the worst of the summer heat just a few weeks away.
If levels drop to 15% of normal supply the water in the reservoirs is no longer deemed fit for drinking and restrictions on tap water would have to be brought in.
The tanker, which arrived in Barcelona from nearby Tarragona, will be followed by its sister ship Contester Defender tomorrow from Marseille.
At a cost of €22m (£17.5m), six shiploads are to arrive each month for three months, from Tarragona in southern Catalonia, Marseille and Almeria - one of the driest areas of southern Spain.
Already Barcelona's authorities have turned off civic fountains and beachside showers, brought in hosepipe bans, and banned the filling of swimming pools. Schoolchildren are being taught how to save water.
"We are only too aware of the crisis with the water as they have been giving my daughters classes for months on how to save water and only to use what they need," said city resident Begoña Gómez, 43, as she sipped a glass of bottled water. "But we need better management of water by the government."
As the reservoirs across Spain run dry, a "water war" has broken out, with different regions scrabbling for extra supplies.
The Socialist government, which initially opposed water transfers from one region to another, executed a political U-turn and allowed water to be pumped into Catalonia from the river Ebro in the neighbouring region of Aragon.
The move infuriated southern regions such as Murcia and Valencia, which asked for similar concessions. Both are significant agricultural areas, with a busy tourist season about to start, and expect their water supplies to be hit hard.
Both areas, run by the opposition conservative Popular party, claim Spain's Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodrìguez Zapatero denied their requests for water transfers for political reasons.
The Socialist government is following a controversial programme of building desalinisation plants, which they claim will provide a long-term solution to Spain's endemic water shortage. They have built six so far and plan a further 18. One is due to open outside Barcelona in May next year.
Meanwhile, despite heavy rainfall over the weekend water reserves in Catalonia only increased by 1.7%.
Water experts say Barcelona's problems are not just down to low rainfall. They claim an antiquated, leaky drainage system loses millions of litres of water a day throughout Spain. Within metres of the new €130m headquarters of Agbar, which owns Aguas de Barcelona, the city's water utility, one faulty system was reported to be losing 800,000 litres a day.
Ramón Llamas, a water expert at Madrid University, says Spain squanders its water and needs better soil management, adding that despite having one of the lowest amounts of rainfall in western Europe, it has one of the highest levels of water consumption a head: the average person in Madrid uses 140 litres a day.
Meanwhile, despite fears taps would run dry this summer in Barcelona, the arrival of water tankers did not please everyone.
Miguel Angel Fraile, secretary general of the Catalan Commercial Confederation, said: "The arrival of a water ship is the image and expression of failure which neither Barcelona nor Catalonia deserves."
And others doubted whether emergency measures were necessary. Carlos Urquiaga, 36, manager of La Tramoia restaurant, said: "No one here asks for water from the tap because the taste in Barcelona is so bad. We always serve bottled water and everyone buys it for their homes."
Who exports where
Hydrologists expect the demand for water will continue to increase with the world's growing population. Some predict that by 2025, 3.5 billion people will be living in water-scarce countries, compared with 500 million in 2002.
· Turkey exports water to Israel and plans to ship more to Syria, Jordan and Greece
· France sends tankers filled with millions of gallons of water to Algeria
· Russia, New Zealand, Norway and Scotland have all considered exporting water
· Malaysia provides most of Singapore's water
· Islands in the Caribbean ship water by tanker to help with shortages
· A plan by Canada to ship 1m gallons of water a day to the Middle East was dropped after protests by environmentalists
