Corbera de Llobregat, Cervelló and La Palma de Cervelló. These three municipalities around Barcelona, practically close to each other, will be the first where there will be water restrictions when the Emergency I phase due to drought enters, expectedly on February 1. There are 28,000 inhabitants. The restrictions will materialize by lowering the water pressure. And it is these three populations because they are the ones that register the highest water consumption: between 262, 282 and 278 liters per person per day in November, respectively. The figures are well above the limit of 200 liters per person per day contemplated by the Generalitat’s drought plan in Emergency I. In the coming days, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area will order supply companies to begin testing to lower the pressure.
The paradox is that in these three municipalities approximately half of the water is lost in leaks. They are municipalities with complicated orography (many slopes) and with dispersed nuclei. Corbera de Llobregat, the largest of the three (15,000 inhabitants), has 30 urbanizations. There are some single-family homes with a pool and lawn, but this is not the main problem. The drama is the network, old and very extensive: it has 170 kilometers of pipes, the mayor, Rosa Boladeras, explained a few days ago in statements to Catalunya Ràdio. Cobera is also one of the municipalities that have raised their voices because last July they asked the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) for help of 300,000 euros to repair and the money did not arrive.
It is enough to enter the Consistory’s website to verify that the works on the network are constant. “The renewal of the water network in the Creu Sussalba urbanization on a section of the road has been approved,” the Consistory announced in December about works that will cost 108,000 euros and will be paid for with Next Generation European funds. “Renewal works on the water network in Can Llopard,” he points out in another notice about “pipe renewal” from the end of last year.
The director of water cycle services for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Fernando Cabello, confirms that the criterion for starting the restrictions is where consumption is highest: “We do not know in what order, but the pressure drops will begin. for the part of the territory where the endowment [el agua que llega a la red] “It’s higher,” Cabello clarifies. As he has explained on other occasions, to begin with, the flow reduction will consist of applying during the day the pressure that is normally lowered during the night hours. And from there, if consumption does not decrease, progressively reduce the pressure.
But lowering the pressure in these three municipalities is quite a challenge, due to the unevenness and the length and poor condition of the network. The system is, therefore, very sensitive: if the pressure drops are excessive and cut off the water, bursts can occur upon return. The tests could begin at any time, because the three municipalities also exceed the maximum consumption of the current pre-emergency phase, which is 210 liters per person per day.
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Cabello claims that the average consumption in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area as a whole is 170 liters per person per day, a reasonable consumption that would not exceed the limit until the Emergency III phase, when it will be 160 liters per person per day. “In metropolitan terms we comply with the drought plan, we will do our homework, but it should be noted that the majority of municipalities comply,” he points out.