Catalonia is experiencing a drought that is gradually worsening with each day that passes without rain.
After weeks without any heavy rain, reservoirs in Catalonia are currently at 27% of their capacity as of 31 March, while at the same date a year ago they were at 57%.
At the beginning of March, the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) activated the status of ‘exceptionality’ as a result of the drought in the municipalities of the Ter-Llobregat system, which includes Sitges and Sant Pere de Ribes.
The ‘exceptional status’ is the fourth stage out of a total of five that form part of Catalonia’s Drought Plan. Restrictions were placed on agricultural, industrial and recreational use of water, while personal use is limited to 230 litres per person per day (still far beyond the average personal use, which is around 117 litres per day).
With no forecast of rain in sight, however, the scenarios that open up for the summer are not very optimistic.
With the activation of the ‘exceptionality’ phase, it has since become clear that few Catalan towns had approved the municipal emergency plan, a document that details the specific measures to be applied for each municipality to guarantee the various uses of water in the different drought scenarios, contemplated in the Drought Plan.
Although the plan, which is mandatory for municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, should have been submitted to the ACA by June 2020 at the latest, as of this week there were still nine that had not submitted it, eleven that considered it ‘unfavourable’ and 20 others that were in the process of submitting it.
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