Barcelona Spain In Drought: To Import Water By Ship
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.15.08
Barcelona is planning to import water by ship from Marseilles, in southern France, as well as from other nearby coastal sources of fresh water. It is an emergency measure: area reservoirs are only 20% full as a consequence of an historic drought.
The Catalan Water Agency says it has chartered 10 tankers to transport water to Barcelona for at least six months, or until rainfall returns to normal. This is expected to cost €22m (£17m, $35m) a month. Emergency wells are being dug in the region of Tarragona to supply the tanker ships.The politics of coping with the water shortage in Barcelona remind us of the parallel situation in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Except worse, as Atlanta at least has relatively uncontaminated groundwater. (The Barcelona region only began to address surface water pollution in the 1990's, 20 years behind North America, and groundwater pollution in developed areas is degraded, according to this source: Water Supply in the Barcelona Region) Via::Financial Times, "Barcelona plans to import water by ship" Image credit::Reuters Pictures, Sau Reservoir north of Barcelona, 2007.
A side note to this story: over the past couple of days, Avui, the Barcelona daily, has been reporting on an agreement between the Catalan government (the Generalitat) and the Spanish government that water will not be diverted from the Ebre river, the main river flowing through Catalonia, unless there is an official declaration of drought.
ironic that Expo 08 is being held just a coupe hours from Barcelona, the theme is water and sustainability.
Transporting water isn't yet a hot political topic but it will become more so over the next few years.
It would be interesting to see where else the water is going to be imported from... and what the people there have to say about it.
it's all a big lie!!! ther's plenty of water up north in the pyrenees, barcelona is greener than last year. Water is the next big investment, prices are the main target, that's all!
Importing water by ship is an idiotic idea; they should do solar water desalination.
there is no water shortage
There has been much talk about climate change, but not much about where we will see its first impact.
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