by GUALBA, Spain (AP) – Plastic hooks in hand, Joan Torrent goes into the woods in search of drinking water. He fills them at a natural spring and then takes them back to his home in Gualba, a picturesque village near Barcelona which like many towns in Spain has the worst drought.
For Torrent, this walk for water a few times a week with the 8-liter (2-gallon) jugs is a minor inconvenience, but Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean may become more common. climate change.
“Gualba used to be full of springs. Now I think this is the only one left,” Torrent, a 64-year-old retiree, said as he made his way to the well connected to the spring. “I don’t think so. we know what’s in store for everyone. from us… People don’t want to hear that there’s a lack of water.”
Officials in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia announced a drought emergency on Thursday, with reservoirs serving 6 million people, including the population of Barcelona, at less than 16% of their capacity, a historic low.
The emergency, which comes into effect on Friday, limits daily amounts of water allowed for residential and municipal purposes to 200 liters (53 gallons) per person. The Catalan water agency says the average resident uses 116 liters (30 gallons) at home.
“We are entering a new climate reality,” Catalonia’s regional president, Pere Aragonès, said in announcing the emergency. “We will most likely see more droughts that will be more severe and more frequent.”
However, Gualba and other small towns and villages across the Catalan countryside have been in crisis mode for months. So, while the effects of the drought are still being felt by the population of Barcelona who are unable to fill private pools and wash cars, thousands living in small communities who rely on dry wells are now struggling to get water fit for wear.
The name Gualba, according to local lore, means “white water” — for the streams that flow down from Mount Montseny above the village. The village of around 1,500 residents has been without drinking water since December, when the local reservoir dropped so low that the water became undrinkable and was only good for washing clothes and dishes.
Most residents have to drive to another town to buy bottled water.
“We always had enough water,” said Jordi Esmaindia, Gualba’s deputy mayor. “No one imagined we would be like this.”
Spain has seen three years of below-average rainfall amid record high temperatures, and conditions are expected to worsen thanks to climate change, which is predicted to make the Mediterranean region a warming faster than other regions.
The reservoirs that feed the Ter and Llobregat rivers in northern Catalonia have fallen to 15.8% of their capacity, and the 10-year average is 70%. Only the Guadalete-Barbate river basin in southern Andalusia, which faces similar shortages and constraints, fares worse, at 14.6%.
Barcelona has avoided water shortages thanks to its expensive desalination and water purification systems, which now account for 55% of all water use in Catalonia. However, the regional authorities in Barcelona and Seville, the southern seat of Andalusia, are both considering sending in drinking water.
Catalan authorities in Barcelona are threatening to fine municipalities if their residents, farmers and businesses do not comply with the water restrictions. They are also urging them to raise water bills so they can pay to modernize pipes.
“Some municipalities lose 70-80% of their water through leaks,” Catalan government official Laura Vilagrà told Spanish national radio RNE. “That is not sustainable.”
Experts in water management fear that the countryside will continue to suffer the most. The water restrictions for pigs and other herd animals were reduced to 50% and for crop irrigation by 80% – a major blow to the rural economy.
“It is being said that this drought is making headlines simply because it affects Barcelona … when we have villages in the Pyrenees that have suffered water shortages and need to bring in water in a truck for several months,” said Dante Maschio, a spokesman for Catalan. Aigua és vida non-profit, or the organization Water Is Life.
“If the drought is not managed properly, it could lead to greater inequality and tension between cities and rural areas,” Maschio said.
Many towns are getting water from tanker trucks often at huge cost. The Catalan government has divided 4 million euros ($4.3 million) – out of a total of 191 million euros ($206 million) dedicated to fighting the drought – among 213 municipalities to help pay for transporting water.
Still, some towns have to cut off the taps, like Espluga de Francolí, which shuts off the water supply daily from 8 pm to 10 am to let its wells recover overnight.
Eva Martínez is the mayor of Vallirana, a town of 15,000 just over half an hour west of Barcelona. Over the past months, her municipality has had periods when it has had to bring in water on trucks that park in neighborhoods so that residents can fill bottles and buckets.
“We understand that it is frustrating for citizens when we have problems with water and when we cannot provide water in the quantity and quality that is needed,” said Martínez. “We see that it is not raining. The situation is desperate.”
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Video journalist Renata Brito in Gualba, Spain, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
