Half empty or half full?
After a drier winter than normal, Catalonia's reservoirs are far from bursting but are full enough to prevent too much concern going into spring and the possibility of water shortages
Despite the lack of rainfall, so far this year we have not suffered water shortages. “The luck of 2015 is that in places where the inland reservoirs are located it has rained little but enough to be within the average range, which means the state of the reservoirs is normal,” says Enric Velasco, head of the Catalan water agency water management department. So, while reservoirs are far from full, there is enough water to avoid worrying about supply at this point. Velasco uses the example of the Ter-Llobregat system, where water levels are below average for the past five years but above the average for the past decade.
“We are good, but we have nothing to spare, which makes water saving important. Our position is not to take drastic measures, but to act method-ically and make the most of the water we have. Even in good times, we continue to insist on coordinating management so only the water that is genuinely needed is used,” he insists.
Turning off the tap
Apart from the importance of saving, what the Catalan water agency is most interested in is managing water resources efficiently: “We listen to users, irrigators, suppliers, and so on, and then we coordinate closely and intensely with them,” says Velasco. A recent example is the maintenance work on the Monar acequia (a community-operated watercourse for irrigation near Salt): “The agency was alerted and so we turned off the tap, which meant during the maintenance period water could not be taken but neither was any lost,” says Velasco. The Monar acequia has a flow of three cubic metres a second, meaning that in the week supply was off, some 1.8 million cubic metres of water was saved. “Saving a little here and a little there means that perhaps in a single month we gain two days' supply, or over two years, 40 days' supply,” says the water agency head.
Coordination is essential for water management and this reaches its height in local committees that include representatives of all parties involved in water management, from councils to ecologists. These committees are held at least twice a year and look into forecasts for water use in coming months.
In Velasco's opinion, “it is very important that everyone feels comfortable. If not, there is an attempt to find a solution.” The minutes from these meetings are made public and can be easily accessed through the water agency website (aca-web.gencat.cat).