Easter holidays – and pre-Easter – with surprise for the numerous tourists who come to Barcelona, one of the favorite destinations for Europeans – and in particular for Italians – now as in any period of the year. Already upon arrival at the airport, or for those who arrived by their own means, at the sacred Family and the other monuments or cult places of the Catalan capital, it is impossible not to notice the impressive display of digital panels, where, on a strictly red background, intended as synonymous with alarm, it is written “Drought warning. During your stay, save water.”
In 2024, anyone who has thought of bringing forward their Mediterranean holidays from summer to Easter, which is also low, and therefore statistically relatively cool, to avoid the worst of the increasingly torrid and sultry summers, finds or is about to find a surprise which is then yet another flip side of the same coin, climate change. The intensification of the phenomenon, which in the Mediterranean area is more marked than the global average, due to that local peculiarity which is leading to the gradual disappearance ofAzores anticycloneand its replacement by the high African pressures, which previously did not exist or were a rarity, has among its consequences the growing phenomenon of prolonged droughts in the area. The one that hit the city of Gaudí and its region is the most severe ever recorded in the area.
Reservoirs at 15 percent and limitations
Reservoir levels are only at 15% of capacity, prompting restrictions on water use by residents, visitors, agriculture and industry. Among the restrictions, the closure of showers on the beachWhile swimming pools cannot be filled with tap water.
(reuters)
The local administration is caught between two fires. On the one hand there is the obvious need to push tourists to behave responsibly; on the other hand, however, there is the need not to distract them from the visit, in the region which is the most visited by foreigners in Spainand where tourism is worth 14.5 percent of the economy.
Between the emergency and the fear of losing tourism
“The message from the Catalan tourism agency to hotels and campsites is an invitation to remain calm: holidaymakers can enjoy their stay as always,” he tells the British agency Reuters David Marcortregional councilor of Catalonia with responsibility for the environment.
Since February, the Barcelona hoteliers’ association had issued a warning, in which it underlined that the city could not sustain, particularly abroad, its image as a top destination by showing its empty swimming pools. Their pressure on the government has avoided a total ban on filling swimming pools, in favor of the use of desalinated water.
(reuters)
“Tourists are not frightened by the drought and have no knowledge of it (before arriving) – explained the director of the association, Manel Casais -. If we do not take care of the possible negative effects of water restrictions on the image of Barcelona, the city will suffer. But for now we have no news of any negative effects: tourists continue to arrive.”
Tourists: “We didn’t know, we will try to adapt”
The tourists encountered by Reuters in the presence of the sacred Family they confirmed they had no idea about the drought before seeing the overhead projectors. “Definitely, we can use less water if made aware of the situation,” said a Finnish tourist.
According to a recent study by the same hotel association, hotels in the Catalan metropolis have halved their water consumption since 2016. At the moment, in the 5 place the average consumption per person – 242 liters – would be higher than 200 liters per head maximum imposed on residents. Hospitality facilities consume 9 percent of the water used in Barcelona.
(reuters)
The anti-overtourism controversy is renewed
The water crisis and the abundant use made of it by tourists and hospitality structures are already triggering yet another protest against mass tourism by the resident population. Carrying signs reading “Let’s turn off the tap to tourism” or “Rivers and aquifers without water, hotel pools full”, environmentalists protested on Wednesday at Barcelona’s tourism agency, demanding further restrictions for the sector .
“With the situation we live in, it is indecent that the concern is to (avoid) sending an image of alarm to tourists when the real problem we have is that our territory is drying up,” said the protester Joseph Sabate.