Severe Drought Forces Barcelona to import emergency water

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times and Global Warming

Severe Drought Forces Barcelona 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

A tourist walks through what is barely a puddle in the Sagrada Familia Lake

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