The lack of water overheats the political climate in Catalonia. The management of the drought stands as a thermometer of the relationship between the parties and, given the imminent restrictions on homes and industries due to the state of emergency, all arrows point to the Esquerra Government. Little has been done, and it has been late, maintains the opposition. ERC responds by redirecting the blame towards the PSOE Government and its subsidiary in Catalonia, the PSC, whom it accuses of hindering the development of essential works to gain more water reserves, as is the case of desalination plants: “No matter how much “There are those who take advantage of the drought to wage a water war, the Government will continue working, despite the obstacles it often encounters in other formations,” denounces Republican deputy Eugeni Villalbí. “It bothers some that the Catalan institutions do do their homework,” Villalbí added.
Esquerra maintains that the socialists “falsely” promised to assume the costs of a new desalination plant to reinforce the supply of drinking water in Barcelona and Girona; But, according to the republicans, what both the PSOE and the PSC have really done has been to put “obstacles” that have delayed the execution of the work between nine months and a year.
The ERC management formalized this Saturday its support for Pere Aragonès to be the candidate in the Catalan elections, scheduled for early 2025. Doubts about the head of the list have been cleared up, after intense rumors fueled from within the party to leave Oriol Junqueras the responsibility of retaining control of the Generalitat, the Republicans go on the attack. The first dart is thrown against the Government, whom ERC accuses of delaying the expansion of the Tordera desalination plant in Blanes (Girona). This is one of the two facilities of this type that the Generalitat has planned to address the lack of rain, a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly frequent and extreme due to the effect of climate change.
The drought acquires the status of a throwing weapon in Catalan politics and the Tordera desalination plant has become a battlefield. 10 days ago, during a visit to the facility, Salvador Illa, first secretary of the PSC, stated that the Government “is not prepared to face the drought because the infrastructure falls short.” Esquerra, after a party delegation inspected the same desalination plant on Friday, attacks the socialists, stating that the Government had the mission of paying the bill for the expansion, but has not done so. ERC accuses the PSOE of negligence, after having committed to allocating 435 million euros to finance the two new desalination plants planned by the Generalitat, Tordera II and Foix, which will be located between the municipalities of Cubelles (Barcelona) and Cunit ( Tarragona). The pro-independence party assured this Sunday that the Government finally “not only will not assume its cost, but has doubled its technical procedures, delaying its expansion in a context of urgency.”
The expansion of the Tordera desalination plant must quadruple the capacity of this infrastructure, which will go from producing annually from 20 to 80 cubic hectometres. The Generalitat’s forecast is that between 2027 and 2030 the two new desalination plants will be built – the Tordera one would come before and after the Foix one – which will contribute to the metropolitan area of Barcelona depending much less on the swamps (of rainwater).
The leader of the PSC and head of the opposition referred this Sunday to the ratification of Aragonès as a candidate. “What is needed in Catalonia is not a candidate, he is a president,” and he asked the Government “to govern.”
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Barcelona is another league
The reproaches between Esquerra and the PSC in terms of a fight to claim themselves as the best manager to govern the Generalitat are toning down in the Barcelona City Council. Ada Colau stated this weekend that, after a meeting with the socialist mayor Jaume Collboni, he told her that the priority is to tie a progressive tripartite pact between PSC, ERC and the commons. “His priority option,” she revealed. “For the first time in seven months I can say that Mayor Collboni has said that he does not want a pact with Junts, but that he prioritizes a progressive pact, a tripartite pact with us and ERC,” Colau specified.
The former mayor’s statements come after intense negotiations between Collboni’s team and the Junts group in Barcelona, led by Xavier Trias. The Collboni-Trias pact has appeared as a very real option in recent weeks, despite the setback that it meant for the veteran convergent politician, winner of the elections, to lose the mayoralty at the last moment due to the support of the PP, and the commons. , to Collboni. Ada Colau, always opposed to the entry of Junts into the municipal government, defends that the left-wing tripartite would be the best solution for the City Council and that “it would allow the municipal budgets to be approved and a future project for the city to be carried out.”
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