Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Cleaning tasks in the city all use groundwater. The current drought means that municipal services are now using more of it, in particular for subsistence watering for trees and plants. The facilitate this, a network of 26 groundwater supply points is being set up with tanker trucks carrying water to complement the 25 hydrants usually used.

The expansion of the network will involve 22 tankers (14 during the morning shift, 5 during the afternoon and 3 at night), which will move around the 26 points to supply smaller vehicles which don’t have the capacity to reach hydrants. Specifically, these tankers will supply groundwater for 239 cleaning vehicles that work in little streets or operate specific cleaning tasks around waste containers and for cleaning stains and graffiti, plus 57 parks and gardens, to provide subsistence watering for trees and bushes.

Groundwater is an abundant alternative local resource, providing quality water which covers part of the demand for water from municipal services. Barcelona currently has a groundwater network of 78 kilometres and 25 permanents hydrants in service, providing 5,000 m³ a day (1.8 hm³/year).