This is how two Catalan towns get creative in times of drought

Residents are starting to get the feeling that every drop is precious

Sant Julia de Ramis is one of the hundreds of small municipalities in Catalonia affected by the water emergency announced last month by the regional government. Its town council, however, has decided to go a step further and get serious about water conservation with an initiative called “A litre less is a litre more” (1 litre menys=1 litre més).

The essence of this campaign is to turn each of the 3,461 residents into a conscientious water conservationist and water user. For this purpose, the town council is inviting each resident to come and a get a bucket with the encouragement that they use it every time they turn the tap on without actually using the flowing water.

A good example of this is letting the water run in the shower while waiting for it to heat up. Rather than let it go down the drain, people could collect it in the bucket and then use it for other household purposes, such as watering, cleaning or even flushing the toilet.

Figueres employs the help of aerators

Figueres, a larger town, also located in the north of Catalonia, has taken a slightly different approach by turning to technology.

The local government has distributed 2,000 aerators to residents, aiming to cut down on water consumption without compromising the quality of water flow. These devices add oxygen to the water flow boosting its volume. This works greatly on a psychological level because people don’t feel the need to turn their taps to the max and thus water consumption has been kept within the required limits of 200 litres per inhabitant daily.

These initiatives are great examples of the ways municipalities and residents living in arid regions might have to start adapting to the new and more arid reality of the 21st-century climate.