Barcelona is parched — and angry at quenched tourists
Barcelona is parched — and angry at quenched tourists
The yawning gap between locals’ and visitors’ consumption is stoking long-standing resentments ahead of an election.
The yawning gap between locals’ and visitors’ consumption is stoking long-standing resentments ahead of an election.
As rain poured into Catalonia’s parched capital, the tourists did, too.
Yet while a damp April brought some relief to the drought-stricken Spanish region — which has been living under rain-starved skies for over three years — the crescendoing tourist season did not.
After all, spring is when visitors start spilling into Barcelona’s streets each morning from cruise ships, hotels and Airbnbs — and consuming considerably more of the city’s water than the average resident, threatening to push Barcelona’s water supply to the breaking point.
The disconnect has locals fulminating. While Catalan municipalities have faced water consumption limits since the region declared a drought emergency in early February, the tourism sector has largely escaped restrictions.
I feel bad but on the other hand this is the second, “No tourists only tourist money please” article I’ve seen. I saw another one from Spain where a bus that goes to the top of a hill had to be hidden from Google maps so locals could get more availability for seating.
I feel for the locals, the casino is just a terrible idea and the fact that residents are being pushed out by airbnb and high rents really sucks for them.
Exactly. If tourists are a problem, close down tourist attractions. We'll wait.
They used a lot of words to say that it's recently rained in Barcelona and the tourist season is beginning. Then they said tourists use more water than residents, with absolutely no indication of how that may be the case.
Then the article just... Stopped.
Did we read different articles or something? They provide numbers about how much regular residents use compared to hotel guests, and explain why that may be the case (lack of regulation/limits in the tourism sector). It even has a small section on how the issue could be handled.
Did you perhaps just read the small paragraph that gets added to the post on lemmy?
Did you perhaps just read the small paragraph that gets added to the post on lemmy?
To be honest, yeah. I'm used to that having full articles to save me from the ad infestations of so many news sites out there that I didn't bother clicking into it. Plus it was a bit early for me when I was giving my daughter an overnight bottle so I was in a state of foggy annoyance.
Even the preview mentions pools.
I use hotel water for 2 things when I travel; showers and toilets. The 2 or 3 liters I drink is nothing compared to those. But I imagine Americans and others from areas where water isn't restricted take much longer showers and we have a habit of leaving the tap running while we do stuff like wash something or brush our teeth. That being said I'm heading to Barcelona in fall and I'll try to be mindful of my water usage
Average water consumption stats make my head spin. According to the article, Barcelona residents use an average 99 liters per person per day. 0_0 I know the residential averages in America are even more horrific, something like 50 to 150 gallons PPPD, depending on locale.
What the hell is everyone doing with all of that water?! My partner and I use 4.5 gallons PPPD. And it's that high because we hand wash our dishes (no place to put a dishwasher).
Irrigating lawns is where that residential water goes. It's fucking insane how much water a lawn needs.
Grass is the largest irrigated crop in the US
The thing about averages is that the distribution is rarely equal across the spectrum. Usually it's a spike on the high and low ends. Kevin showers after he shits while Dave changes out his pool water a couple of times a year to make sure it gets cleaned extra well.
My partner and I use 4.5 gallons PPPD.
Do you really count everything? This seems awfully low.
Yes, we live on a ocean-going sailboat, so we have tight metrics on consumption rates for everything. The 4.5 number comes from our average monthly consumption.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
While Catalan municipalities have faced water consumption limits since the region declared a drought emergency in early February, the tourism sector has largely escaped restrictions.
If the government relaxes drought restrictions, municipalities’ allowance would rise to 230 liters per person per day, while mandatory reductions for agriculture, livestock and industry would ease slightly.
Bonet — a member of the opposition Catalan Socialists — said the city hadn’t been consulted about the new plant and suggested the government was simply trying to mask years of inaction ahead of the regional election.
Regional budget negotiations collapsed in March when one party made its support conditional on the government freezing a casino-hotel megaproject near Tarragona, south of Barcelona.
Carrera’s favored option: Gigantic basins near the city that would capture water during periods of intense rainfall and let the ground slowly absorb it, thus recharging parched aquifers.
At the same time, they’ve insisted that tourists shouldn’t stay away and allowed swimming pools to be filled as long as they’re classified as a “climate refuge” to escape the heat.
The original article contains 1,894 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 91%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I'm visiting Spain for the first time right now and the amount of wah-wah "tourism bad go home!" crybaby graffiti and signs are huge. Do you want the tourism industry's money but none of the tourists? Huh?
i don't think it's unfair to want sustainable tourism, it isn't either do or dont, there are many ways to do it. think airbnb and rising housing costs: residents may want to have customers AND buy a home in their city
It’s like one edgy dude. All the font is exactly the same for 90% of those. ‘Go Home Tourist’ is basically his graffiti name. News agencies, tourists, and social media posters love it though.
Has it occurred you that they do not want it at all? Tourism money is not a blessing. It results in terrible jobs that pay miserably and prevents better jobs from appearing as the living costs skyrocket.
Tourist season begins and boom, surge of 110% minimum-wage jobs. 6 months later, everyone is fired and invited to live 6 more months off the sun. People are pretty fed up with this new form of bellow-minimum-wage slavery you can't possibly imagine.
Source: Engineer who lives in Lisbon and does not need to submit to it but still needs to pay 150% minimum wage for rent. There isn't a single person besides bribed politicians and tourism-related business owners who wants this.
I live in a very, very touristy area. I just accept that I live somewhere other people want to see, and there’s real consequences to that. The consequences are significant. Traffic, crowding, high prices, shitty restaurants, etc. There are benefits though. And not all tourist jobs are bad. Yeah they’re not engineering jobs, but to the people who live off those jobs they are happy they exist. It’s easy for someone who is privileged to say no one wants those jobs.
The disconnect has locals fulminating.
What?
Word hard, Unga knows.