Barcelona is parched — and angry at quenched tourists (www.politico.eu)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[-] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

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).

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

My partner and I use 4.5 gallons PPPD.

Do you really count everything? This seems awfully low.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

Irrigating lawns is where that residential water goes. It's fucking insane how much water a lawn needs.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Grass is the largest irrigated crop in the US

[-] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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.

[-] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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?

[-] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago

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?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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.

this post was submitted on 10 May 2024

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