MADRID — Barcelona received its first seaborne shipment of drinking water yesterday, part of an unprecedented emergency plan to tackle the city’s worst drought in decades. The tanker carrying five million gallons (23 million litres) of water from nearby Tarragona is just the first to help to alleviate the growing shortages in one of Spain’s top tourist destinations, which has already resulted in hosepipes being banned and many fountains turned off. One reservoir has fallen to such a low level that the remains of a village flooded in 1962 have reappeared. Other water shipments are due from the French city of Marseilles, and, in August, from a desalination plant in Almería, on the south coast. A total of 66 shipments a month are expected to arrive in Barcelona this summer, providing about 6 per cent of the region’s water needs, at a cost of €21 million (£17 million) a month. Additional shipments may come by rail from other parts of Spain. Other emergency measures that the regional government of Catalonia will take to prevent the northeastern Spanish region from running out of drinking water will include diverting the mouth of the Ebro river. This has […]