Catalonia is suffering the worst drought in recorded history, more than a century ago. Rainfall over the last four years has been much lower than usual, which has meant that reservoirs are below 16%, marking an all-time low. On 1 February, the Generalitat decreed a drought emergency for the Ter-Llobregat system, affecting practically 80% of the population. The emergency scenario is the harshest of the five scenarios in the drought plan and limits consumption to 200 litres per inhabitant per day. However, unlike the other scenarios, there is a gradation between emergency 1, 2 and 3, reaching scenario 3 with a limitation of 160 litres per inhabitant per day. It is important to mention that the restrictions per litre per inhabitant per day include not only the consumption of the population, but also all those water uses that affect the population, among them, water uses in shops, restaurants, gyms, industry, among others.
As far as the industrial sector is concerned, the restrictions represent a challenge, but also an opportunity to optimise its processes that affect the water cycle and, in the future, a competitive improvement. The industrial sector affected by the emergency scenario and which have their own water supply sources (concessions) must reduce their water consumption by 25% of the total. However, if they have implemented water saving measures and solutions in the past, they can submit a Water Saving Plan (PEA) to the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and reduce this restriction to 5%. All these measures are duly detailed in the Drought Portal of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It is important, at this point, to stress the importance of prioritising investments in water saving, as the drought could lead to a reduction in the productive capacity of some economic activities.
The Catalan Water Partnership - CWP (Catalan Water Cluster) has been working for years with water-intensive sectors, including industry, in numerous R&D projects, working groups, diagnostic studies, among others. This past year we have intensified our accompaniment in the wake of this complex situation, participating in more than 100 conferences to talk about technological solutions for water saving and also presenting success stories already implemented. During these conferences, we mentioned that the water forecast for the future will not improve. The effects of climate change will be particularly noticeable in the Mediterranean area, the supply of resources will decrease and demand will continue to grow.
The 150 or so CWP partners have solutions and technology already available that could lead to large water savings. However, in some cases investments can be difficult to prioritise, so it is necessary to carry out audits to help set a clear roadmap and identify those processes with potential for improvement. There are basic improvement solutions and technology that can enable water reuse, leak detection and even digital control solutions based on artificial intelligence for smart water cycle management. There are many options available, but they need to be prioritised and put on the agenda of company strategies.
Landing in the chemical and cosmetics sector, apart from specific conferences, CWP has been collaborating with the sector for some time through R&D&I projects. Today, we are coordinating the Cosme Water Footprint project co-financed by MINCOTUR in the 2023 AEIs call, which aims to develop and validate a methodology for analysing the water footprint, adapted to the cosmetics and perfumery sector. The project, structured in three phases, will allow the development of the engine for calculating the organisational water footprint, as well as by product produced, in order to provide companies in the cosmetics sector with a digital tool that allows the automation of the calculation of their water footprint. In addition, it has also made it possible to identify new specific proposals for improvement that would enable the reduction of the water footprint of 11 companies representing the Spanish cosmetics business network that form part of the project's focus group. This is a collaborative project with the Feeling Innovation by Stanpa cluster, Cetaqua (a pioneering water technology centre in the calculation of the water footprint in numerous sectors) and 3 engineering partners of the CWP (Lente Ingenieros, Hydrokemos and Hidroquimia).
As a final reflection, it is important to highlight the importance of collaborative work, both with the water sector and by joining forces with the entire business sector to find solutions that are more profitable for everyone. For example, the use of reclaimed water from industrial estates, as the petrochemical industry in Tarragona has been doing for years. Today, the priority of the drought is to implement existing solutions to improve the efficiency of water use by companies, but in the future it will be necessary to continue working with comprehensive planning taking into account all sectors and public-private collaboration that converge in medium and long-term strategies.