Catalonia to install floating desalination plants to ease effects of drought

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - The Catalan regional government announced on Thursday that it will install 13 floating desalination plants along the Catalan coast to help alleviate the effects of the region’s historic drought.

In installing a floating plant at the Barcelona port, David Mascort, the region’s climate change minister, said that the city would no longer have to resort to importing fresh water by ship.

If the Barcelona area continues to be deprived of rain, the previous plan was to start importing water in October – the same month the plant is expected to be ready.

However, the government in northeastern Spain expects the new desalination plant could provide as much as twice as much water per day at half of the price per liter as ships. Eventually, it could even supply as much as 6% of the water consumption for Barcelona and 27 nearby municipalities.

Mascort explained that the solution was more “affordable, eco-friendly and much more stable in terms of ensuring the supply.”

The Catalan government will purchase 12 other mobile floating desalination plants to dot the region’s Mediterranean coast.

The plants will be targeted to the Alt Emporda area, home to the famous towns of Figueres and Cadaques.

There, the drought emergency has already reached level two and there is a clear risk that the area could see its water supplies compromised by the summer.

In February, Catalonia declared a drought emergency for the first time ever, putting water restrictions on more than 6 million people.

Under the plan, as the drought tightens its grip, the water restrictions also get more severe.

According to Catalan daily La Vanguardia, the move to unlock new water resources also answers the calls of farmers who warned of the consequences of restrictions and having to resort to irrigation with saltier water.

“So now, whether it rains more or not, we can avoid having to increase the level of restrictions going into fall,” said government spokesperson Patricia Plaja.

As of Thursday, Catalonia’s reservoirs are 18% full, according to government data.

That is up from 14% after much-needed rains fell during Easter week, but still a long way off from the 10-year average of the region’s reservoirs being 75% full at this time of year.

Whether the desalination plants will have consequences on the coastal marine ecosystem will not be studied in environmental impact reports, as Mascort said that studies indicate that the discharge of salt does not harm marine life.