Desalination and circularity: How Catalonia is planning to solve its water crisis without rain

Catalonia is planning to spend €2.3 billion by 2040 on solving its chronic water shortage problems.

The regional government has set itself the goal of “guaranteeing water security and ceasing to depend on rainfall”.

Last week, the region's new President Salvador Illa presented an updated water management strategy which aims to avoid severe episodes of scarcity like Catalonia has seen in the past four years.

Desalination, leaky pipes and water circularity

Around half of the total amount has already been set aside for projects. One of these is the construction of a new seawater desalination plant in northern Costa Brava. Though there are no details yet about exactly where this plant will be, it will cost roughly €200 million and require some cooperation from the Spanish government.

It adds to the 12 desalination plants already planned by the previous president of the local government, Pere Aragonès.

Another project involves diverting wastewater from the Besòs river to the Llobregat river so that it can be used there while the Besòs water treatment plants are being built. Work on water treatment plants in Mataró and Figueres is also being brought forward to help replenish aquifers and for use in agriculture.

“We have implemented a new management model. We are moving from a linear one to a circular one,” Silvia Paneque, Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition said when the plan was announced last Tuesday.

“A large amount of pre-drinkable water ends up in the sea and we have to pump it upriver to take advantage of it.”

The government says the new water management roadmap should also allow for some money to be spent on repairing long-term leaking pipework affecting the cities of Badalona and Santa Coloma de Gramenet and their surrounding areas.

Catalonia’s drought emergency

Amid severe water shortages, the Catalan regional government declared a drought emergency in February this year. Reservoirs had fallen below 16 per cent of capacity after three years of below-average rainfall with officials describing it as the worst drought in modern history.

Restrictions on water use were introduced including a ban on filling swimming pools and watering green spaces. Residents were limited to using a maximum of 200 litres of water per day while further restrictions were placed on agriculture and industry.

The emergency drought measures were lifted in May when water levels in Catalan reservoirs surpassed 20 per cent of capacity. The situation, however, remains precarious and the Catalan government now wants to guarantee water security as the region faces an increasingly arid future due to climate change.

Water without depending on rainfall

Like her predecessor, Paneque stressed that despite recent rain, “the drought is not over yet”. But Illa’s government plans to spend around €1 billion more than previous regional President Pere Aragonès’s plan.

There are two main differences. First, the new set of measures should mean that Catalonia can get 70 per cent of the water it consumes from sources that aren’t reservoirs by 2027. Currently, only 33 per cent of the water the region consumes comes from sources that aren’t rainwater.

Second is the addition of plans to transport wastewater from the Besòs to the Llobregat to make it drinkable and distribute it. Unlike the old plan, the new management scheme also doesn’t include fines for municipalities with excessive water consumption.