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.
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.
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.
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.