The Blue Community / Blue City of Barcelona, in Spain’s north-eastern autonomous region of Catalonia, will force new buildings to adopt water-saving measures with shower water to fill toilet cisterns, the Spanish daily El Pais reports. Grey water recycling will be mandatory and will reduce the amount of water consumed by families or hotels by a third.
Grey water recycling (collecting and treating it in common areas of the building) will also be mandatory in large renovations, of more than 16 homes. Where it is installed, it will mean a saving of a third of water consumption (up to 185 euros per year). The potential annual saving in the city is 136,000 cubic meters of water. For developers, the cost of construction will increase by 0.5% of the price of the homes or 0.7% if it is a hotel, the council explained on Thursday.
In Catalonia, there are medium-sized cities in the area around the capital that already require recycling of grey water (Sabadell, Begues, Castellbisbal, Sant Just, Sant Joan Despí, Cerdanyola, Barberà, Santa Coloma, Sant Adrià or Ripollet), but Barcelona will be the first large Spanish city to have a specific ordinance. In fact, the city is already a pioneer in measures to alleviate droughts . And new neighbourhoods or those with recent urban development plans in the Catalan capital, such as the Gràcia neighbourhood or 22@, already apply grey water recycling. Public housing buildings are also already built with the system. On the other hand, among the buildings exempt from applying it are hospitals, social health centres or nurseries.
