Barcelona (EFE).- The political discussion about the drought in Catalonia continues: PSC-Units has requested the appearance of the director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), Samuel Reyes, to give explanations for the “inaction” of his body , which “left 300 million euros unexecuted in five years.”
This was confirmed in statements to EFE by the spokesperson for the PSC-Units in Parliament, Alícia Romero, who has denounced that this “inaction” in terms of drought prevention “is not from now, but from the last ten years” of pro-independence governments, a decade in which “the ACA budget has been reduced by 50%”.
In the socialist ranks there is discomfort with Samuel Reyes, since after the failure of the summit against the drought on March 31 – in which the Government and the opposition failed to agree on new measures – he accused “some parliamentary groups” of politicizing the meeting for electoral interests and pointed directly to the PSC.
“The statements of the director of the ACA tasted bad to us. They were absolutely unlucky. We have requested his appearance in Parliament so that he can come and explain the data”, Romero indicated.
For example, the Socialists do not understand why “the level of execution of many of the works of the ACA is at 2%.”
According to their figures, between 2016 and 2021, 670,000 euros were planned for subsidiary aquifer decontamination actions and only 15,000 euros were executed, that is, 2.2%.
In the same period, three million euros were also planned for connections of saline effluents of industrial origin in the Baix Llobregat towards the collector, but only 55,000 euros were executed, less than 2%.
“How can it be that the ACA incorporates into its budget investments for the decontamination of aquifers and the execution is below 5%? They have to give explanations ”, Romero demanded.
Between 2016 and 2021, denounces the PSC, the ACA had planned 342 actions worth 503 million euros, but at the end of the last year of that period it had only executed 205.59 million.
According to the calculations of the PSC, if the ACA had not left 300 million “unexecuted” during those five years, it would have been possible to have an additional 75 cubic hectometres per year.
In the internal basins, Romero emphasizes, 600 cubic hectometres a year could be available from aquifers, but 76% is in poor condition due to the “inefficiency” of the Government and the ACA.
The “confrontation” with the municipalities, a “mistake”
Romero is “offended” by the “insistence of the Government in wanting to confront the city councils” over the water issue, instead of offering them “resources to build new infrastructures.”
“This will to transfer the responsibility to the municipalities is a mistake. What is needed at this time is to seek collaboration between administrations”, he stressed.
For Romero, “the problem of the drought is not the fault of the municipalities, but rather the ACA, which has left the water cycle infrastructures abandoned.”
This “inaction” is also observed in the field of forest management: “The forestry law of Catalonia is from 1988, we have not been able to update it.”
Romero prescribes “discretion” to agree on the North Round
After weeks of exchanging proposals between the Generalitat and the Ministry of Transport to outline the agreement for the construction of the Ronda Norte, Romero has prescribed “discretion” and has reproached the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, for accusing the Government last Tuesday of the State of wanting to “cheat”.
“We would like the negotiations to be behind closed doors. When they work well, it is when the interlocutors are left to work to reach an agreement. When we are talking all day and throwing ourselves in the face of one role or another, this does not help ”, she has warned.
Despite everything, he added: “The conversations we have had in private with the Government are in line with the agreement and, therefore, we hope that we can have it in the coming days.”