Country & City Focus

STAL welcomes Setúbal municipality decision to recover water and sanitation management

STAL warmly welcomes the approval by the Municipality of Setúbal, on the 24th of November, of recovering the municipal public management of water and sanitation, thus putting an end to the concession to private companies approved in 1997 by the socialist party, a decision marked by several suspicions, in which EPAL – the major water public company was even prohibited to compete by the then Minister of Environment Elisa Ferreira, in a clear favoring of private interests.

The decision now proposed by the communist party and the greens coalition - CDU, corresponding to an electoral commitment made in the last local elections by this political force, was approved with the votes in favor of the socialists, with the abstention of the social-democrats, and, according to the note issued by the municipality, “the municipal public management carried out by municipal services or municipalised services is the one that best adapts to the reality” and which, from a financial point of view, "should represent a superior added value" for the Municipality of Setúbal "and better tariff conditions for the users”.

For STAL, this is a great victory for the populations and workers, and is another example - after Mafra, Paredes and Santo Tirso, who rescued the concessions - which belies the proclaimed superiority of private management and confirms that these sections should not leaving the public sphere.

In this regard, the union recalls that in Fafe, where Indáqua charges one of the most expensive waters in the country, the contract ends at the end of 2021, as well as in Trancoso, another locality, so it reaffirms the demand that these municipalities put an end to privatization.

For this very reason, STAL will continue to fight for a law that prevents the privatization, in whatever form, of these essential services and demands the remunicipalization of privatized services, namely abusive contracts already declared illegal by the Court of Auditors.

Improve the public service and defend workers' rights

STAL hopes that the transition period that will elapse until the creation and installation of the municipal services takes place in a normal way, expressing, from now on, all availability to accompany and participate in this process, being unequivocal that the City Council will have to admit all workers, whose rights must be fully safeguarded.

As the Union has always stated, the privatization of water is a politically illegitimate, socially unfair and economically wrong decision, which seriously harms the interests of the municipality, populations and workers, for which the return of water to municipal public management, naturally constituting reason of satisfaction for those who, like us, consider that water is a right and not a business, it can and should be, above all, an opportunity to develop a management committed to the values of public service, to the defense of workers' rights and populations and the environment.

For our part, we are available and we will do everything to make it so.

STAL - Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Administração Local e Regional, Empresas Públicas, Concessionárias e Afins

From Naples a clear message: Stop privatizations, public water “without any ifs or Ltds”

The Assembly of the Water Movements, met in Naples on 20th November 2021 following the national demonstration held in the morning, feels committed to oppose privatization processes of the integrated water service launched in the present phase, to affirm water as common good and to re-publicize water services.

To this purpose the Assembly deems necessary:

To reaffirm the great value of the experience carried out by Azienda Speciale ABC Napoli (ABC Naples Special Company), bulwark of democracy and of implementation of the will expressed in the referendum. To that effect, the Assembly requests mayor of Naples to make a clear terse statement in defence of and in securing ABC Naples Special Company as a public law body, by preventing in the meantime any attempt to change its juridical nature and to consequently privatize it.
To prevent PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) from constituting a further factor of penalization the South of Italy and an attempt to make it land of conquest for the Multi-services companies in the management of water services and local public services. To that effect, the Assembly asks Minister of the Ecological Transition to withdraw the circulaire of 12th May 2021 that prevents a plurality of operators of water services from having access to the PNRR funds. This disposition, having, by its very nature, only effects inside the Ministry, is illegitimate, without legal basis and in contrast with European principles whose scope is the elimination of social and territorial inequalities.
To counter the plan of privatization of the integrated water service and of local public services delineated in the DDL concorrenza (Competition Bill). And even more, we deem necessary to remove Art. 6 from the above mentioned bill, because this article is not conforming to the referendum obligation, as it excludes public governance and favours de facto private monopolists.

The retreat of the Llobregat delta

Translation into English of an article from the Taula del Llobregat

The Llobregat delta has retreated 800 metres in a century. A study by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya reveals that the width of the river at its mouth was 275 metres in 1846 and is currently 36 metres.

Scientists from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya reveal surprising data on the Llobregat river and its delta, in a study published in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. The most significant data is the quantification of the delta's retreat in just over 100 years. Using geolocated historical maps, they determined that the Llobregat delta, at its mouth, retreated 800 metres between 1891 and 2000, before the diversion of the mouth for the expansion of the Port of Barcelona.

These data are relevant because it has never been calculated with this level of precision. "This retreat is very important. We knew that sand was being added to the Llobregat delta because it was retreating, but the extent of this retreat was unknown," explains Arnau Prats, a researcher at the UPC and one of the co-authors of the study.

The scientists started with a hypothesis that was not subsequently confirmed. "The hypothesis we put forward was that infrastructures, civil engineering works, the AVE railway, dams, but above all the motorway and the expressway, were responsible for this modification of the lower course of the Llobregat", explains Carles Ferrer, professor and researcher at the UPC and one of the three authors of the study.

Les universitaires ont eu une surprise : "La voie rapide et l'autoroute ont été construites il y a 50 ans et l'échelle de temps du recul du delta est de plus d'un siècle", souligne Juan P. Martín Vide, également enseignant et chercheur à l'UPC et troisième co-auteur de l'étude. Il fallait donc chercher les causes ailleurs.

The Llobregat lock dams and the erosive action of the sea, main causes of the delta's retreat

The authors of the study consider that the reservoir dams of La Baells, La Llosa del Caballo and Santo Ponç are not the main cause of the delta's retreat because they are located several kilometres from the mouth and "the transport of sediment is slow", according to researcher Arnau Prats. He explains that "the transport of coarse sediments from the bottom of the river can take decades to arrive from Baells to the mouth".

The three authors of the study -Juan P. Martín Vide, Carles Ferrer and Arnau Prats- point to the lock dams as the main cause of the delta's retreat. They were built throughout the 19th century with the aim of exploiting hydraulic energy. These infrastructures, as well as the different channels in the last river section, have reduced the contribution of coarse sediments to Prat de Llobregat, which are the ones that make the delta move forward. In addition, the action of the waves has eroded the land that the river had gained on the sea.

On the other hand, the researchers found that when there is a flood at the headwaters of the river, the marshes reduce the supply of sediment because they reduce the water flow by 20%. And this reduction has an effect on the transport of sand and gravel. "We have found that the reservoir dams cause, on average, a 20% reduction in the peak flow of the Llobregat at the river mouth, and that this 20% reduction leads to a 40% reduction in the transport of sediments from the river. Nevertheless, the impact of this inertia is still limited in the delta. According to Professor Juan P. Martin Vide, the effect "will be more important in a few decades".

Eliminating channelling to reverse the trend

Scientists do not foresee miracle solutions but a change in the trend. "We can't talk about solutions like in other areas of life or engineering, where everything is solved once the remedy is known and applied. Here, we should rather think of changes in trends", explains Juan P. Martín Vide.

They believe that the measures that can be taken will take a long time to become visible. "We have to keep in mind that these lock dams are located several kilometres upstream from the delta. Therefore, any action taken now would take a long time to be noticed," adds Carles Ferrer. He suggests: "In addition to the lock dams, we could also think about the small streams, tributaries, etc. that are channelled through concrete dikes, which also limit the sediment supply to the delta and are closer to the mouth. We could think about removing these channels which, in the long term, could help to increase the sediment supply from the Llobregat to the delta.

The removal of these channels and lock dams is the long-term solution proposed by the study, while the traditional provision of sand on the beaches of the delta is a short-term and ephemeral measure.

The new river mouth, a sediment trap

The Llobregat is one of the rivers that have been intensively exploited since the industrial revolution in Catalonia.

From its source in Castellar de n'Hug to its mouth in Prat de Llobregat, there are 170 kilometres of reservoir dams at La Baells, La Llosa del Caballo and Santo Ponç, as well as numerous lock dams and channels.

In 2004, the diversion of the mouth 2 km further south than the original mouth was inaugurated, due to the expansion of the port of Barcelona. However, the infrastructure did not foresee what would happen to the sediment. "The new mouth is twice as wide as the old one. And this poses a problem for the transport of sediment from the river to the beach. During floods, when there is more sediment transport, the riverbed is wider and the water velocity is therefore lower. As a result, the material transported by the river is trapped at the bottom and reaches the coast less. And this fact is not without consequences: "What happens is that this bottom increases because of the accumulation of sand that comes from upstream and is not deposited on the coast. And this, in the long term, can be a problem because the hydraulic capacity of this channel can decrease due to the rise in the bottom," concludes researcher Arnau Prats.

The "hardest working" river

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Llobregat River has been equipped with lock dams and channels to supply the textile factories born of the industrial revolution. So much so that the French geographer Pierre Deffontaines (1894-1978) said: "Perhaps no river in the world has been so intensively exploited as the indigent Llobregat".

Sources :

https://beteve.cat/medi-ambient/retroces-delta-riu-llobregat/

https://www.sostenible.cat/reportatge/el-preu-de-la-revolucio-industrial-al-llobregat

Thinking of glaciers as actors in a world we inhabit in common

In 1944, as the Second World War raged and brutalised the world, Aldo Leopold asked himself the question of the « ethics of the Earth ». Faced with broken humanism and devastated living environments, this American forest engineer urges us to take a mountain point of view to shift internally and give us the means to change the world. What if our existences were mixed with those of other living beings and moving entities, and if together they formed a network tending towards a common future? What if humans, animals, mountains, forests, rivers, glaciers, and grasslands shared more than just a utilitarian relationship, and if they coexisted beyond or below narrow forms of cost calculations – interests that we, humans from industrial modernity, have assigned to them? These are the questions which animated the forerunner of ecological thought more than half a century ago; these are the questions we wish to ask today.

Our story is about a glacier. A glacier overlooking a deep valley in the Hautes-Alpes, at the foot of La Meije in the canton of La Grave. A glacier on which an operating company has decided to build a third section of the cable car, reaching a peak of 3,600 meters, thus becoming the worthy competitor of the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix. This infrastructure with the aim of providing summer skiing is totally obsolete in the age of climate change! In the future it would also open up the possibility of creating yet another super ski area, eventually linking the resorts of Alpe d’Huez, Deux Alpes and La Grave.

Attack on the president of the Kruščica local community is an attack on all activists as well as an attack on the legal and constitutional order of BiH!

Tahira Tibold

The Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina strongly condemns the stoning of the house of Tahira Tibold, president of the Kruščica Local Community and one of the Brave Women of Kruščica, which took place by unknown perpetrators on Wednesday morning, November 25th.

“It is a cowardly attack by people who do not know how to deal with a woman who is not affected by blackmail, bribery or threats. Since she became president of the local community, there has been continuous pressure on her and her family. Hate speech and heinous lies were written on social networks, live threats were subtly made, and now they have switched to physical assault. We must not tolerate violence, this is not just an attack on a woman, a fellow citizen, but also on the legal and constitutional order of BiH, given that Ms. Tibold represents all residents of the Kruščica local community who elected her and gave her legitimacy,” said the Coalition for River Protection.

The attack came after the FBiH government announced it was preparing several regulation amendments that would prevent the negative impact of small hydropower plants to the environment, and after confirming that there would be no subsidy for the construction of these plants after this year.

”This is not the first attack on people who are activists in Kruščica. So far, the police have been silent, but we believe that they are in the service of citizens and will find the perpetrator or perpetrators of this unfortunate attack! We want their names to be revealed and published. I regret the breakdown of interpersonal relations in Kruščica, but small hydroelectric power plants will not be built here for sure!”, said Maida Bilal, president of the Association of Citizens Ecological Society “Bistro” from Kruščica and one of the Brave Women of Kruščica.

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