For the first time in Catalonia, a drought emergency has been decreed in
24 municipalities, which encompass some 26,000 inhabitants (ResolutionACC/2892/2023, of August 4 https://dogc.gencat.cat/ca/document-del-dogc/?documentId=966866), 22 from Alt Empordà (Girona) and 2 from BaixCamp (Tarragona). This statement is a very clear example that capitalismreally is drought, and that all government actions, as it could not beotherwise, are on the path of perpetuating the domination of those whodestroy the earth. Although it is foreseeable that there will be newemergency declarations shortly, it is interesting to analyze this firstdeclaration.More info droughthttps://malclima.blackblogs.org/2023/06/14/capitalisme-es-sequera-contra-lespoli-capitalista-de-laigua/and on the channel https://t.me/Terraillibertat)In the case of Alt Empordà, the majority of the municipalities depend onthe Fluvià-Muga aquifer, an aquifer depleted by the overexploitationgenerated by the tourist and agro-industrial industries. Furthermore,this overexploitation has caused salinization in the coastal area andthe activity of the macro farms, nitrate contamination, in fact a goodpart of the area in emergency, specifically 9 of these 22 municipalitiesare within the map of areas vulnerable to nitrate contamination(https://agricultura.gencat.cat/web/.content/07-ramaderia/dejeccions-ramaderes-fertilitzants-nitrogenats/enllacos-documents/fitxers-binaris/zv1.pdf). The measures that the emergency "imposes" are the same nonsense asthose of the alert. Most of them are dedicated to pretending thatsomething is being done (performances in front of the gallery) that donot solve anything and are directed above all against those who havefewer resources: they are largely classist measures. You can have anidea of the proposals of the Competent Authority athttps://sequera.gencat.cat/web/.content/02_LA_SEQUERA/SUPORT-MON-LOCAL/bloc-excepcionalitat/poster-sequera-restriccions-excepcionalitat.pdffor municipalities that are in a state of emergency.For example, the measurement of irrigation of green areas is aquantitatively "irrelevant" issue, at least for municipalities (orneighborhoods) with less green area. The general consumption for urbanirrigation, according to the little data available, is only 0.1m3 per m2of green per year(https://www.diba.cat/documents/471041/383054040/Cuadro+sumen+global+indicadores+2021.pdf/69b3b9e0-16d5-c8d8-b376-6e7a03863c15?t=1674135846749 ), if wetransfer this to "liters inhabitant day" we have that consumption rangesfrom 1 liter with little green to 65 liters for highly landscaped ones,this in a framework in which 79% of the municipalities move between 90and 200 liters per inhabitant and year. Therefore, irrigation represents1.11% of domestic consumption for municipalities with little green,while in a municipality with a lot of green it could be 32.5%, most ofthe municipalities with little green are also those that have incomelower, savings also have a class bias. Obviously, it is not the same tolive in Torrassa (less than 4m2 per inhabitant) or in Santa Coloma(about 6m2), with these few parched green spaces, than to live in theopulent neighborhoods of Pedralbes, in Sant Cugat (32m2) or Matadepera (237m2), with abundant public and private greenery that, although dry, isobviously more enjoyable, we are therefore faced with a clear classist bias.Something similar is what happens with beach showers. The MetropolitanArea has closed all the showers, except in Barcelona, which has sometourist beaches where a good part of the users are not residents, whereit has maintained a few showers (one per beach, they say). It is not thesame to bathe on the Badalona beach and, without showering, going homeon the TUSGSAL bus, than going to the beach in Calonge and returning tothe apartment a few tens of meters away where you can shower and cooloff comfortably, it is not the same. bathing in Barceloneta and goinghome without showering than walking a few meters to the elitist (andprivileged) Club Natació Barcelona or to your room at the Hotel Vela. Itshould be said that the shower and footbaths on the beaches are a veryrecent service in most of them, and that the few that had less, thedebatable need for this equipment does not prevent the restrictionmeasures from being clearly class-oriented.The measures applied to irrigate the urban green and the beach showersleave all the talk of climatic shelters on paper, which is canceled outby dry shelters with no possibilities of refreshment... dry and with nopossibilities for the poor, of course. . The same happens with thosededicated to washing vehicles in which car washing companies are leftprotected.The recommendations for agricultural and domestic consumption areimprecise and uncontrollable, but the most striking thing is that thereis no mention of economic activities, other than agribusiness, such ashospitality and various manufacturing activities (textiles,metallurgical, chemical...). This means that, in practice, everythingremains a dead letter.The emergency in the Alt Empordà region.A curious fact is that the municipalities in emergency are managedmainly by private companies, 68%, only 32% have public management, quitefar from the region as a whole, which is 56% private. The populationserved is in the same direction , among those who are in emergency, 83%are served by the private, in the whole of the region the proportion ismore balanced, 54% of the population served by the private and 46 by thepublic, in the whole of private Catalonia It supplies 67% of the population.It is not irrelevant that most of the municipalities and the affectedpopulation are managed by private companies, companies that neithermaintain the networks nor are interested in controlling or saving water.AGBAR, the company that has the biggest piece of the pie, has beenlooting and devastating the earth for 156 years, in the Alt Empordà, inBarcelona, in Bolivia... or in the world.The basic unit for dictating the emergency has been the origin of thewater, in this case Unit 03 (Fluvià Muga aquifer), the adjacentmunicipalities, especially the coastlines, depend on other Units, Unit09 of the Darnius-Boadella reservoir (3 municipalities). , from the 14Empordà (4 municipalities), one from the Baix Ter aquifer and one fromthe 03 Ter aquifer, Sant Pere Pescador, which is the only coastalmunicipality in a state of emergency.The Darnius-Boadella reservoir (which is only at 17.9% of its capacity)supplies water to the 3 municipalities that accumulate 49% of the BaixEmpordà hotel beds and that are also outside the emergency (Cadaqués,Roses and Castellón de Empúries).All these coastal (and tourist) municipalities in a logical and naturalway would depend on 03 the Muga-Fluvià, if this aquifer were not damageddue to overexploitation (especially by tourism) and apart from thereduction in the availability of the resource, It has been damagedlocally by marine intrusion that progressively salinizes it.Among the 10 municipalities with the most water consumption, there are 6on the coast and two have a golf course in their area (of the 3 in theAlt Empordà) and accumulate 53% of the hotel beds.The tourism industry not only plunders resources but also devastatesthem by destroying them. The state (and the Generalitat is the State) ina crisis situation not only protects the devastating ones but alsomaintains their harmful activity.A separate chapter would be second homes and urbanizations that make upa tourist use that is well differentiated from that of hotels andcampsites. On the one hand there are urbanizations and on the other adiffuse urbanization that extends beyond the coast and fills part of theinterior.The new urbanization projects, according to SOS Costa Brava(https://soscostabrava.cat/casos/) are 4, two latent Super Fener-Roses2in Llançà and Empordà Park in Pau, one in conflict in La Farella also inLlançà and one partially deactivated in Sa Guarda in Cadaqués. In totalthere would be more than 435 homes and 2 hotels, but there are surelyother initiatives, such as the POUM of Peralada where 200 single-familyhomes with a garden and swimming pool are planned. On the other hand,there is strong activity within the urban area with new constructions,and outside it with new chalets and renovations of old houses. Anindicator of the penetration of second homes and urbanizations in BaixEmpordà is that in the region there are 14.39 swimming pools per 100inhabitants, compared to 2.49 in all of Catalonia.In both cases, urbanizations and the diffused, this entails water costs,irrigation of green areas and swimming pools. The urban vultures havefixed their eyes on what remains of the coast, not only devastated, butnot built on, not only the Costa Brava, but the entire peninsular coastline.To all this data we must add the apartments and flats for tourist use,legalized or not, which represent another overload of water consumptionand which are not quantitatively negligible. Roses has 6,773 licenses(about 27,000 places), Castelló d'Empúries and l 'Scale more than 3,000each (more than 25,000 places between the two), those that are outsidethe law cannot be evaluated, but they will surely approach those thathave a license.Industrial livestock farming and macro farms.The Alt Empordà does not reach the extremes of other regions such asLleida or Osona, but industrial livestock farming has an importantweight, as demonstrated by nitrate contamination in the aquifer.In the region there are 304 pig farms (large, small and medium), ofthese 44 are macro farms with more than 2,000 pigs, emitting more than1.5 million tons of CO2. The municipalities affected by the emergencyhave 23 of these macro farms and emit 0.8 million tons of CO2. In AltEmpordà there are 487,970 pigs(https://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=aec&n=15432&lang=es), this is3.45 pigs per Empordà person (in Catalonia as a whole there are 1.26 andin Osona 6.76), most of the meat production is for export. Right nowthere are 67 applications to open new farms or expand existing ones.Capitalism is drought, plunder and devastation.The drought situation depends on the climate, yes, but those who reallycause it are capitalism and the states. Capitalism through the agri-foodindustry, industrial livestock farming, urban speculation, supplycompanies and the tourist business plunders and devastates the land, theState, the Generalitat and the Catalan Water Agency protect and promotetheir activity.Against capital and states, against devastation, for anarchydevastacio@riseup.netmalclima.blackblogs.orghttps://t.me/Terraillibertathttps://alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/52961_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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