Community and municipal swimming pools avoid drought restrictions after all

Community and municipal swimming pools in Catalonia will avoid drought restrictions this summer after all.

Although current legislation specifies that swimming pools cannot be filled during droughts, Catalan government spokesperson Patrícia Plaja explained on Tuesday after the weekly cabinet meeting that authorities would modify the Special Drought Plan to make an exception for "pools for community use for public health reasons."

The government "considered it to be necessary and advisable that swimming pools be filled and used during the summer season," Plaja said.

Exactly which pools will be considered "for community use" remain to be specified, but the move will likely benefit users of municipal pools as well as those belonging to sports clubs and neighborhood communities.

Private pools for single-household use will be excluded from this exception. 

Opposition against fine moratorium

There is not a moratorium on fines for local councils that breach drought restrictions, something both the Socialists and Junts per Catalunya opposed, but the government has suggested it would not be issuing any anytime soon. 

"It is possible that while there is no explicit moratorium, there will be no immediate fines," Plaja said. 

These announcements come under a week after 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. 

"The lack of an agreement does not condition the government's commitment to implement the measures that are within its reach, as it has already done throughout the 30 months that the drought has lasted," the government spokesperson said. 

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

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.