The Government has established the improvements for the water supply in the south, the Levante and some points of La Mancha and Aragón as the most urgent issues for next summer. It is at these points where the hydraulic works of “immediate execution” will be located, which are part of the decree of measures against the drought that the extraordinary Council of Ministers adopted this Thursday. Almost 36 million euros will be allocated to extract water from emergency wells or pipes and improve supply channels from reservoirs in the Guadalquivir, Ebro, Guadiana and Segura river basins.

The “immediate execution actions” are one of the three categories of actions provided for in the 1,400 million package of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, within a decree that also contemplates another 732 million in “priority” works, which should begin to be tendered on next year to be ready in 2026 or at the latest in 2027, in addition to 57 million in tax exemption. They are part of a decree-law that also contemplates 636 million in direct aid to farmers and ranchers and other measures of a fiscal nature for a total value of 2,190 million.

As explained by the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, after the Council of Ministers, the most urgent works will be located in the basins most affected by the drought and will be “wells and connections to be able to guarantee the water supply this summer”.. “These are works that we could describe as express, agile executions”, has affected. As a government document explains, these are “actions that must be undertaken immediately to alleviate the current and foreseeable shortage situation in the coming months.”

“Now it's time to execute,” said Ribera, who has opted to accelerate investments that in 2022 followed a slow pace, given that almost half of the budget planned for desalination or treatment plant works was left unused. This Thursday, in addition, the vice president has set a new goal for water reuse. Currently, 10% of urban water is reused and in 2027 it should be 20%. “It will mean going from 400 cubic hectometres a year to nearly 1,000 of reused water.”

Andalusia and Levante

According to the detail of the distribution of these almost 36 million, the largest investment in immediate execution actions will be made in the Guadalquivir basin, where 14.7 million will be allocated to adapt supply intakes and other elements of hydraulic infrastructure and for pumping emergency, wells or pipes, for example.

Another 10 million will go to the Segura river basin, to start up emergency pumping, and a similar amount -9.1 million- will go to the Guadiana river basin, where water quality adaptation works are planned. in Los Molinos and Sierra Boyera (Córdoba province), the waterproofing of the Campos del Paraíso reservoir (Cuenca) and also for the start-up of emergency pumps.

The fourth immediate investment -for 1.6 million euros- is planned in the Ebro river basin, to adapt supply intakes in the Ebro (Cantabria) and Yesa (Zaragoza) reservoirs.

Aid to the Junta and the Generalitat

In the medium term, the Government has approved 732 million in investments for “immediate actions” that Ribera has indicated that they will not be operational this summer but has hoped that they will begin to be tendered throughout the month of June so that “a good part” are operational in 2026 and “finish by 2027 at the latest”.

As he has said, with them the central government comes to “help” autonomous communities such as Andalusia and Catalonia that have requested assistance from the central Executive to carry out works among which the Ministry has also included actions aimed at recovering the Doñana National Park already planned , such as a transfer of three cubic hectometres from the Odiel and Tinto rivers to Matalacañas to reduce the use of the aquifer and which was already announced at the end of last year.

Andalusia is the community that will concentrate the greatest amount of resources for this type of works. On the one hand, 200 million will be allocated to the Andalusian Mediterranean basins, a demarcation that, being intra-community, is the responsibility of the Junta, to face desalination works in the Axarquía region (Málaga) and in eastern Almería.

On the other hand, the Guadalquivir basin will have another 88.5 million investment for the environmental recovery in Doñana and improve the treatment of drinking water.

Another demarcation of the situation of the drought is especially worrying are the internal basins of Catalonia, also an autonomous competence, of the Generalitat, and in this case the Government comes to its aid with 220 million for works such as the expansion of the Tordera desalination plant (Tordera II), in Girona.

It is expected that another 180 million will go to the Júcar demarcation for actions to reuse the Monte Orgegia and Rincón de León treatment plants (both in Alicante).