Rain Relieves Barcelona Drought - a little

It's been raining in Barcelona for much of the last two weeks and more rain is forecast for the coming 10 days. The region welcomes the water-filled skies with open arms, open mouths, and open umbrellas. And with good reason! Barcelona is in a full-scale drought alert. Many reservoirs are at 20% capacity, decorative city fountains have been turned off, and water prices have risen substantially. Bars and restaurants are even charging for tap water.

Today was the first day that Barcelona began receiving shipments of water from the Spanish city of Tarragona by way of Panamanian-flagged tanker ships. Future ships will come from southern France. This will help quench the thirsty residents of Barcelona. But this is just the beginning of 3-months of such water tankers to dock in Barcelona's Port. However great this shipment appears to be, it will only provide Barcelona with a tiny 6% of their monthly water consumption.

But the ships are only a small part of a bigger solution. Roughly 180 Million Euros is being spent to construct a water pipeline from the Ebro River to bring water to Barcelona until a desalination plant - which would be the largest in Europe - is constructed in May 2009.

Let's all hope the rains continue in Catalonia/Catalunya/Cataluña. We all enjoy a green Barcelona and our human cells need H2O too!

Barcelona Drought: water pipeline to Barcelona

The worst Barcelona drought in 50 years continues - and no relief in sight from the cloudless Catalonia skies - the Spanish and Catalonia governments agreed to build a 60km pipeline from the Tarragona region to the Catalonia Capital of Barcelona to supply the city with water.

Oddly, at least to me, the water taken from the Tarragona region is water from the Ebro River which apparently goes to waste due to inefficient irrigation systems. Wasted water is of no use to anyone - except for the natural water cycle - but emergency use can be put to the 50 cubic hectometres of water they expect to pump.

Plans to divert water from the Ebro River to Barcelona, which seem like a natural albeit temporary solution, have brought protests from the Murcia and Valencia regions. A new desalinization/desalination plant will to go into operation in a year's time, giving much relief to Barcelona and the Catalonia region. The Catalonia government also plans to ship water by freighter from France and other parts of Spain.

Desalination seems to be the best long-term solution of them all - but it might be wiser if it took water not from the Mediterranean but from the Atlantic ocean if the proper permits can be acquired and the west-to-east Spanish water pipeline can be built. They do it for oil so why can't it be done for water?

The answer to the above is probably simple: MONEY. OIL is much more valuable than water. Humans NEED water to survive. We've already proven that we can live without oil although it'd be difficult.

Catalonia water reserves are at about 20% of lower in most of the reservoirs and the cost of public water usage as risen, causing restaurant and bar owners to charge for tap water or only serve bottled water.

If the cost of water goes up we can assume the cost of Catalonia-brewed beer, Catalonia produced soft drinks, and even Catalonia Cava will rise too as their principal ingredient is, you got it, H2O.