Seeing numerous monuments and historical locations without streams of water, you may have noticed that the beautiful fountains throughout Barcelona do not have water running through them. For the past two years, the region has been experiencing difficulties with water usage, deriving problems from the majority of 9.7 million tourists that visit annually. Over five million residents living in the Provence of Barcelona suffer from a lack of water supply. To help combat severe problems, the government has issued mandates to turn off all fountains to conserve water.
According to Politico’s article on this issue, high numbers of tourists are to blame for pushing the water supply to its breaking point. The article explained that city hall “estimates that local households use 99 liters of water per person per day, far below the Spanish and European average, while tourists staying in hotels use 163 liters per day.”
Due to the ongoing drought, citizens have called on the Catalan government to invest in large-scale infrastructure. The government has been forced to raise water bills to help with the cost of desalination and has also called upon tourists to limit their water usage. As tourist numbers visiting the city continue to climb, what does the future hold regarding the arising water problems for Barcelona’s natives?
