The yawning gap between locals’ and visitors’ consumption is stoking long-standing resentments ahead of an election.
As rain poured into Catalonia’s parched capital, the tourists did, too.
Yet while a damp April brought some relief to the drought-stricken Spanish region — which has been living under rain-starved skies for over three years — the crescendoing tourist season did not.
After all, spring is when visitors start spilling into Barcelona’s streets each morning from cruise ships, hotels and Airbnbs — and consuming considerably more of the city’s water than the average resident, threatening to push Barcelona’s water supply to the breaking point.
The disconnect has locals fulminating. While Catalan municipalities have faced water consumption limits since the region declared a drought emergency in early February, the tourism sector has largely escaped restrictions.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
While Catalan municipalities have faced water consumption limits since the region declared a drought emergency in early February, the tourism sector has largely escaped restrictions.
If the government relaxes drought restrictions, municipalities’ allowance would rise to 230 liters per person per day, while mandatory reductions for agriculture, livestock and industry would ease slightly.
Bonet — a member of the opposition Catalan Socialists — said the city hadn’t been consulted about the new plant and suggested the government was simply trying to mask years of inaction ahead of the regional election.
Regional budget negotiations collapsed in March when one party made its support conditional on the government freezing a casino-hotel megaproject near Tarragona, south of Barcelona.
Carrera’s favored option: Gigantic basins near the city that would capture water during periods of intense rainfall and let the ground slowly absorb it, thus recharging parched aquifers.
At the same time, they’ve insisted that tourists shouldn’t stay away and allowed swimming pools to be filled as long as they’re classified as a “climate refuge” to escape the heat.
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