Roda de Berà will continue this year in a drought situation and the City Council will maintain restrictions on the coast with a measure already confirmed for the beach season. There will be no showers on the sand, although foot showers will be installed, while the council insists on asking for a prudent use of water throughout the municipality.
The situation does not affect the entire municipality equally. The southern half, corresponding to the beach area, is connected to the Tarragona Water Consortium, while the northern part depends mainly on wells and reservoirs that are at their limit. This difference has conditioned water supply management for years and has led the City Council to promote a new connection to bring water from the Ebro to the entire population.
The wells are nearing their maximum capacity
Currently, four potable wells operate in Roda de Berà. At full capacity, they can provide 3,800 cubic meters per day, a figure very close to the consumption registered during moments of greatest pressure on the network. In August 2025, the municipality reached 3,600 cubic meters daily.
The mayor, Pere Virgili, has explained that the deterioration of underground resources has not been sudden.
"There was the idea that it would always be like this. No one could imagine that a drought like the one there has been would come" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
The mayor himself has also specified that the decline in reservations has been progressive, although in the last period it has clearly accelerated.
"The decline has been gradual" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
"In the last 6 years, levels have plummeted" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
The pressure on the system already forced the City Council to act urgently in 2020, when in a context of supply restrictions in homes the new well of Cal Llorenç was drilled.
More fixed population and a summer with demand shot up
Roda de Berà has been the town on the Costa Daurada that has grown the most in the last five years, with an increase of 21.7%. In five years it has gone from 6,758 to 8,260 inhabitants, to which is added an average of 70 new registered residents each month. In summer, furthermore, the population triples.
That demographic change has a direct effect on consumption. The mayor links it in large part to the transformation of the residential park.
"Many second homes, especially since Covid, are now primary" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
From the town hall it is insisted that the image of a tourist area next to the sea should not lead to deception.
"People have a feeling of abundance and here they are told that there is no surplus" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
The connection with the CAT, pending and without a date
The City Council started years ago the procedures to extend the connection with the CAT to the entire municipality. The project, which would also maintain the wells as a complementary resource, would have a cost of about 7 million euros. For the mayor, that expansion is the structural solution to the problem.
"It is the solution" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
There is not yet a closed calendar to execute that new connection, although from the mayor's office it is considered that it should be done soon. In parallel, the council also studies the reuse of treated water through a tertiary treatment.
The evolution of the project has also been linked to Bonastre, which suffered serious drought problems while Roda de Berà advanced in its own connection with the CAT. The neighboring municipality proposed sharing a single action, but both town councils have ended up agreeing to divide the project to be able to advance at different paces, since Roda de Berà has completed procedures that Bonastre still needs to complete.
Leak control and smart meters
While that fundamental solution does not arrive, the City Council reinforces control measures over the network. Resources are being allocated to maintenance and the repair of leaks, the installation of smart meters is being prepared, and personnel are available to manually shut off supplies when losses are detected.
The recovery of the aquifers, in any case, is not contemplated in the short term.
"The water must infiltrate the earth and it would be necessary for it to rain like this for years" - Pere Virgili, mayor of Roda de Berà
With that scenario, the municipality faces the high season with the network at its limit in the northern area, without showers on the beaches and with the underlying message that the City Council repeats to residents and visitors. Water continues to be a scarce resource in Roda de Berà and the immediate priority is to contain consumption until a stable connection can arrive for the entire population.