Drought in Spain: More Desalination Plants for Water Resource Management

Europe’s only true desert is in Spain, north of Almeria, in Andalusia. It’s the Tabernas Desert, where rainfall doesn’t reach 250 mm a year. Many fear that the unique landscapes of this area, often used as settings for Western movies, could become common in a country where rain is increasingly scarce and water feels like a mirage.

Currently, Spain’s drought is experiencing one of the most severe peaks in the country’s recent history, a crisis so deep that it has brought water reservoirs to critical levels, shaking the country’s water resource management. In some regions, the situation is particularly dire, such as in Catalonia, where reservoirs are filled to only 16% of their capacity. It’s no coincidence that Barcelona has been home to Europe’s largest desalination plant since 2009, crucial for converting seawater into freshwater. The El Prat de Llobregat plant can treat 200,000 cubic meters of water daily, supplying 1.3 million people, and in 2023, it provided 33% of the drinking water used by the metropolitan area.

Barcelona’s case is not unique, as the Spanish metropolis is emblematic of a country that has embraced desalination as a primary tool to address its water resource management challenges. Spain is among the leading countries in desalination investment and ranks fourth worldwide in the volume of water treated with this technology, following Saudi Arabia, the

United States, and the United Arab Emirates. Currently, 750 desalination plants are operational in Spain, 99 of which are large-scale facilities, with a production capacity of between 10,000 and 250,000 m³/day.

El Prat de Llobregat is a coastal area near Barcelona’s international airport. Here, seawater is taken from the coast and transported two kilometers to the plant, where the reverse osmosis process reduces the salt content before the water is disinfected and sent to the water network. Despite having Europe’s largest desalination plant, Catalonia remains vulnerable to the water crisis. Consequently, local and national governments are considering a €500 million investment to enhance desalination capacity and implement new water protection and distribution measures.

The plan includes funding for two new desalination plants in Tordera and Foix, as well as the transfer of freshwater via ships from the Valencia region to Barcelona. According to the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, state-owned company Acquamed will fund the construction of the two new plants, which are expected to be completed between 2028 and 2029.

Desalination is now a globally widespread technology. Around 160,000 desalination plants are operational in 180 countries, demonstrating that many states see these industrial facilities as the most efficient and reliable response to the water crisis. Italy’s Fisia Italimpianti, a unit of the Webuild group, is the world leader in desalinization. Its plants serve 20 million people, with a capacity of 4.8 million cubic meters of treated water a day, if we consider existing plants and those under construction. Among these are some of the largest and most innovative desalinization plants in the world built in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, those areas where water is most scarce and where finding a new way to access the blue gold becomes a question of survival.