Apr
13
Week 8: Why should tourists have water privileges in Barcelona?
April 13, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
By Elmy Lung
In last week’s blog post, I wrote about the droughts that south eastern Spain faced a couple of years back. The country is facing a similar problem, only this time in the more northern part in Barcelona. The second largest Spanish city, and capital of Catalonia is now facing the worst droughts in almost a hundred years and the government has already announced plans to import water from France and other areas in Spain. It is reported to cost 22 million euros just to satisfy a five day consumption amount to Barcelona. Such importing of water will carry on for at least six months until rainfalls resume to its normal levels that can end the water shortage there. For the past 18 months, Spain has suffered a rainfall shortage where rainfalls are only a third of what it would normally be.
In an AFP article, it is said that,
“The drought has hurt crops and hydroelectric power production as water reserves have dropped to 46.6 percent of capacity, a 20 percentage point drop over the level recorded a decade ago. [and] The situation is especially critical in the northeastern region of Catalunya whose capital Barcelona is a top tourist draw.”
Not that tourists visiting the modern city- where much of its transformations took place only in 1992 from preparation works for Olympics that year- are realizing the severity of drought and how the situation may escalate. My friend Jacqueline Wong only came back from Barcelona a couple of days ago. She was there on a holiday with her university friends just before the final exams. When I asked her about Barcelona and its water problems, she said they were not informed at all. They had however, noticed that all the fountains and water displays were dry though and found it a bit strange. Not that most tourists would really care to be honest. Like Jacqueline, most are heading there to enjoy a sunny holiday, so it is only to their delight that the city does not get a single drop of rain. Even if they had known about the drought problems, their activities are unlikely to be restricted. I know from Jacqueline, their’s haven’t. The government there takes high measures to ensure that the droughts are not stopping tourists from visiting in the prime vacation seasons. It’s understandable though, for the tourism industry is a key part of Barcelona. In the first two months of 2008, it attracted over 1.4 million tourists. The number is projected to increase substantially in the summer.
For locals however, it presents a rather different story.
Upon reading about Barcelona having to import water, I spoke on instant messenger to Helena de Puig, a friend who lives in the city. She said that the government has introduced fines to families who are using water excessively, which includes washing their cars or filling up their swimming pools. While Helena said that no one she knows have been fined and that the warnings are not taken very seriously, but still, they are aware of the problems they face. She was quite surprised to know that the city water shortages also made international news. But should she be? Afterall, this isn’t a problem that the region has only just started facing. It’s been going on for some time and as big water consumers, they should be made aware of the consequences of their actions. I’m glad that at least something is being done, or is attempted.
But Helena did say something that I was not aware of, and not mentioned in any of the articles I read on the topic. She said that Barcelona faces hill fires every summer because of the heat. It’s not going to be any different this year. The fact that Barcelona does not have water, or will only have enough water to cover normal consumption would pose challenges to firefighting hill fires later on. She predicts that hill fires will spread and it doesn’t seem like anyone is doing much to prevent that. Of course it remains to be seen whether sudden heavy rain will bring some much needed relief to the situation. But for now, both locals and tourists should be made aware of the problems- for I don’t think this is one self contained issue. Environmental issues are bound to spread- they are just transnational in nature. Why should tourists be spared from knowing the truth- and how is economic gain the a reasonable justification for people to ignore environmental problems when all the signs are there- it is blatantly a serious problem that no one is taking seriously.
