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The threat of another parched summer in Spain is pitting tourists against local residents and left against right in battles over water in the country’s holiday hotspots.
Hotel swimming pools are the latest flashpoint in Spain’s struggle to cope with the effects of climate change, with local governments forced to consider strict controls on water usage to prevent the taps running dry across the south.
Right-of-centre politicians are seeking to cosset sunlounging holidaymakers, while leftwing leaders have pointed to hotels as part of the problem.
The conservative-run Andalusia region, whose Costa del Sol beach havens include Málaga and Marbella, has allowed hotels to fill their pools but is stopping most apartment blocks and private homes from filling theirs.
In contrast, the leftwing regional government in Catalonia this week imposed limits on hotel water use for the first time as the region faces what it calls the worst drought in 100 years.
“The tourism sector has to adapt to the situation we are experiencing, which is absolutely abnormal,” Patrícia Plaja of the Catalan government told the Financial Times. “It is a very important sector, but with the same rights and the same obligations as any other.”
In areas classed as facing a drought “emergency” — which currently include Barcelona — hotels will be limited to using 100 litres of water per hotel bed a day, the same level as for local residents.
Plaja said such hotels would need to consider limits on the water used for baths and showers, but predicted there would be few cases of pools that had to be left empty. “The key word is balance — equality between all the different sectors that drive the Catalan economy.”
Water shortages are a recent factor in Spain’s sometimes conflicted relationship with tourism, which is a pillar of its economy.
It is the second-most-visited country in the world after France and Spaniards themselves are enthusiastic beachgoers. But mass tourism has triggered a local backlash in several places and is stretching resources and infrastructure in regions not ready to cope with the numbers.
Andalusia, which is run by the conservative People’s party, is allowing public and sports club pools to be filled along with those at hotels, while leaving pools attached to private flats and houses dry.
Andrés Marín, manager of a Málaga gardening company and spokesman for a group of businesses opposed to the water restrictions, said pool maintenance groups were losing some clients as were gardeners banned from watering plants and lawns.
“The measures they have taken are unfair,” he said. “Tourists come to Málaga and they can bathe seven times if they want, they can fill the Jacuzzi as many times as they want, and there are no restrictions.”
Although there was no policy change this week, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, president of the Andalusian government, offered some hope by saying the rains that drenched much of Spain over Easter meant “now it may be possible to fill private swimming pools”.
The government of Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist prime minister, is overseeing a multibillion-euro investment plan to restore damaged water sources, modernise supply systems and promote water recycling and desalination.
Diego Rubio, secretary-general of public policy in the premier’s office, said he understood there was a debate on how to deal with water scarcity. “But it would be a mistake to target exclusively hotel swimming pools or golf courses,” he told the FT. “Their consumption is relatively small.”
Agriculture consumes just over 79 per cent of Spain’s water, with 15 per cent going to residential and commercial use, 5.5 per cent for industry and 0.4 per cent for recreation, according to the environment ministry.
“Plus the water used by tourism can often create more wealth and jobs than the water used to irrigate a barley field,” said Rubio. “We need to modernise all sectors. Only that comprehensive approach will give results.”
Catalonia’s government, run by the pro-independence Catalan Republican Left, is leading efforts to alert tourists to the importance of conserving water with advertisements at airports and train stations.
But Gonzalo Delacámara, director of the Center for Water and Climate Adaptation at IE University, said the robustness of Spain’s water system so far had allowed a certain “cognitive dissonance”.
While people were being sensitised with messages that “we are experiencing a very important drought, that there is a climate emergency”, the reality was that the system was still resilient and able to deliver water “24/7”.
Additional reporting by Carmen Muela in Madrid
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