BARCELONA – The Spanish region of Catalonia has declared a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought on record.
From Thursday residents are banned from washing their cars and filling up empty swimming pools under measures brought in to tackle the crisis.
More than six million Catalans will be affected across 200 towns and cities, including the capital Barcelona.
The restrictions were announced after reservoirs fell to close to 16% of their capacity.
“It’s still not raining,” Anna Casòliva Freixe told the BBC, looking out of the window of her bakery. “It’s worrying if you don’t have enough water.”
Anna lives and works in Berga, a town high up in the mountains north of Barcelona which has been hit hard by the drought.
“We need water to make bread – we need water to make the dough,” she said. “But we need it at home as well: for the washing machine, to shower and so on.”
Spain is familiar with dry conditions and other areas of the country are also suffering droughts, including Andalusia in the south and the eastern region of Valencia.
However, Catalonia, which borders southern France, is less used to such conditions, forcing officials to consider bringing in water by ship to Barcelona should it run dry. This measure was previously adopted in 2008.
Other initial emergency restrictions will include a sharp reduction in the use of water for crop farming and industry, and the capping of water supplies per inhabitant per day.
Town halls can face fines for flouting these limits and there is scope for the restrictions to be increased further.
Just a few kilometers away from Berga, the impact of the drought is all too visible. The la Baells reservoir, along with others in the Ter-Llobregat basin system, provides water for Barcelona and dozens of surrounding towns.
Its currently filled far below capacity, with its parched banks exposed.
“Barcelona and its surrounding area are home to five or six million people and that population density makes it a very vulnerable area,” Anna Barnadas, secretary for climate action in the Catalan government, told the BBC.
She said that a Catalan government drought strategy, drawn up in 2021, had already diversified the region’s water supply, making it less reliant on reservoirs and wells. Some restrictions on water use have already been in place.
Such measures, Barnadas said, allowed the authorities to delay the emergency measures. (BBC)
