- The Ecology councilor takes advantage of the drought to request an urgent meeting of the mixed cruise commission
The Councilor for Urban Planning and Ecology of the Barcelona City Council, Janet Sanz, requests through a letter to the Councilor for the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, that the Generalitat convene an urgent meeting of the cruise commission in Barcelona to address the arrival of more than half a million of monthly cruise passengers this summer. The councilor for Ecology has taken advantage of the drought situation to urge the Generalitat to convene the aforementioned mixed commission between the City Council and the Generalitat to reduce the number of cruise ships that arrive in the city.
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“The Government of the Generalitat has approved a few days ago the declaration of exceptionality due to drought, which only aggravates the situation and requires quick and effective responses from us,” writes Janet Sanz in her letter. Finally, she adds that “it would be completely incomprehensible that we suffer from the least rainy year in the last 100 years and more cruise passengers arrive than ever.”
Janet Sanz echoes the forecasts of the CLIA association of cruise companies, which estimates that this year the figures for 2010 will be reached when 3.2 million visitors arrived in Barcelona through this type of tourism. Janet Sanz associates this growing number of passengers with high water consumption. In statements to the media, Sanz indicated that “cruise ships that only pass through Barcelona have an extractivist consumption of the city and yet do not leave a profit.”
However, the Port of Barcelona points out in a statement that the average water consumption of a cruise passenger is a quarter of that of a citizen of Barcelona because 80% of the ships have their own desalination and water treatment plants and do not load water while they are docked in the city.
Janet Sanz asks in her letter that the committee approves a limitation of activity to three cruises a day and 200,000 passengers a month.