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This desalination plant near Barcelona provides water for millions of residents during this severe drought.
If the majority of Catalans wanted to know what they owe to their survival, they would have to look at the Mediterranean Sea at the level of the airport, fix their gaze about two kilometers away, imagine a large pipe that brings back the water to a huge installation on the sea On the edge of the Llobregat estuary: the El Prat desalination plant. The largest in Europe for human water consumption. In these times of intense and historical drought, the structure is vital: it is now running at around 80% of its capacity to power the taps that drink from the 4.5 million residents living in Barcelona, its densely populated agglomeration and the surrounding areas . Or about 60% of the population of one of the most dynamic regions of Spain. Who thus benefit from an almost free resource without having to resort to buying mineral water in the supermarket.
“Never before have we had such a great need for water,” says José Miguel Diéguez, manager of Aigües Ter Llobregat, the public company responsible for managing the site. For Jordi Molist, in charge of Catalonia’s water supply, “this plant is our best guarantee in the event of an exceptional situation like this year. All the water we desalinate is as much water as we don’t siphon from reservoirs and dams while waiting for hypothetical rains. It allows us to give ourselves a margin and…