Give the water back ATLL

The legal tug-of-war between the Catalan government and Acciona over control of water management for 140 municipalities and five million users in Barcelona is set to continue over the coming months. But now the government plans to begin administrative eviction proceedings in order to recover the assets belonging to the public domain (including the facilities). The plan is to start being able to offer the service in compliance with the July decree that established that Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) should be made a public company as of January of this year. That is why a new public entity, now called ATL, was created and has been in operation since December. The vice president of the government and minister of the economy, Pere Aragonès, told a parliamentary committee yesterday that “legal authorization will be requested” in order to get water management back in the event that Acciona, a leader in the ATLL consortium, refuses to release the facilities. Before all this, however, the February 5 ruling from the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) must be heard. The court must resolve Acciona’s request for precautionary measures so as to not have to leave ATLL. This January 2 the government decided to initiate the administrative procedure and gave the company 10 days to make a statement.

When asked about worker subrogation, as workers received letters from both ATLL and ATL in which they were given contradictory information about who they were working for, the minister for territory and sustainability, Damià Calvet, said that wages would be taken care of. He also admitted that ATLL was “hindering” matters.