Drought-stricken Catalonia loses 24% of drinking water, mainly through leaks

Last year Catalonia lost 24% of its drinking water, mainly due to leaks. This is slightly below the Spanish average and close to rates across Europe.

A total of 134.300 billion or 134.3 cubic hectometers were lost in 2022 according to Catalan Water Agency (ACA) figures reported by RAC1 radio – enough water to fill the worryingly empty Sau Reservoir or for Catalonia to have twice as many reserves as it has now.

Fining councils

The minority Esquerra cabinet and opposition parties failed to reach an agreement on how to tackle the ongoing drought following an hours-long meeting at the government headquarters in Barcelona last Friday, with one of the points of contention being a moratorium on fines. 

According to climate action minister Teresa Jordà, who spoke with RAC1 last weekend, local councils are in charge of upkeeping water retailing distribution systems, but she said she was aware of the difficulties smaller towns face and suggested they might not be fined. 

"The fine system acts as a deterrent," Jordà said. "If the municipality begins to carry out the necessary works that should be completed within in a year, we will monitor their progress. If two years go by and they are not completed, then we will have to issue fines." 

Similarly, government spokesperson Patrícia Plaja said on Tuesday that "it is possible that while there is no explicit moratorium, there will be no immediate fines."

Plaja also announced that €50m in aid would be allocated to local councils to help them carry out works to improve the water supply.

Badalona losing 180,000 liters daily

The city of Badalona, not far north of the Catalan capital, has been losing 180,000 liters per day for the past 15 years due to a pipe leak, according to mayor Rubén Guijarro. 

The leak was detected in the city's Canyet neighborhood in 2005, and according to Guijarro, since then it has been losing 2 liters per second.

But unlike Jordà and Plaja, who suggested councils were in charge of maintenance, the mayor has called on Aigües Ter-Llobregat, the service provider, to "urgently" solve the issue. 

It is a "grave contradiction" to ask citizens to reduce water consumption when "thousands of liters of water" are being lost every day, the mayor argued. 

Santa Coloma de Gramenet losing 86,000 liters daily

Núria Parlon, the mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a city north of Barcelona and west of Badalona, has also reported her city is losing 86,000 liters per day as a result of a pipe leak, and like Guijarro, she believes it is Aigües Ter-Llobregat's responsibility to fix it. 

Company sources have told the Catalan News Agency that they are searching for the source of the issue and claim "it is not possible to affirm that the lost water is from an Aigües Ter-Llobregat pipeline."

Reservoirs at 27%

After weeks without significant rainfall, reservoirs in Catalonia are at 27% of their capacity as of April 4, 2023, according to the Catalan Water Agency.

Some of these reservoirs have had to organize fish culls to prevent dead fish from contaminating drinking water.

Learn more about the issue by listening to the Filling the Sink podcast episode on the ongoing drought from September 2022.