Catalonia plans to build new water desalination plant in Costa Brava

The Catalan government plans to invest €2.3 billion until 2040 in water infrastructure so that Catalonia stops depending on rainwater.

Of this amount, €1 billion was already planned to be spent.

One of the biggest projects of the new investments is to build a new water desalination plant on the northern Costa Brava.

The infrastructure would cost €200 million and would require funding from the Spanish government. Its exact location has not yet been set because some studies prior will need to be carried out. 

"We are starting a new path to secure the resource of water in Catalonia, and that is why we have launched an ambitious water management project," Catalan government spokesperson and Territory Minister Sílvia Paneque said after Tuesday's executive council meeting.

The agreements approved on Tuesday "design" a set of measures that allow Catalonia to reach 70% of its total water consumption guaranteed from its own resources by 2027. For now, the territory has 33% of guaranteed consumption beyond rainwater.

Another of the new plans is to divert wastewater from the Besòs river to the Llobregat to be treated while the Besòs water treatment plants are not moving forward.

The Llobregat already has a network of water purification plants with the capacity to treat the Besòs wastewater. The new Besòs water treatment plants will not be in use until 2033, a deadline the executive has set.

 

Catalonia has been in a severe drought for the last three years as relatively very little rain has fallen in the territory in that time. 

In May, emergency drought measures were lifted in the majority of Catalonia as reservoir levels surpassed 20% for the first time in months.  

To learn more about the drought, listen to the episodes of our podcast on the topic from September 2022 and Decemer 2023 below.