After criticism from some councils who say that they do not have room to manage the census of swimming pools that serve as climate shelters, climate action advisor David Mascourt confirmed yesterday that the decree is not intentional because hotels and individuals are filling their homes. Baths. “The decree tries to give way to the demands of municipal councils and is drawn up so that towns that do not have a municipal swimming pool can declare as a sanctuary a private swimming pool in a boarding house or a sports center open to the public,” the councilor explained.
He added: “In fact, the proposal targets, above all, inland municipalities that do not have a coast.” Mascourt also stressed the importance of including climate shelters in municipal drought plans, for which some councils are still not ready: “They have to justify it very well and the councils have to reach agreements with the owners to regulate their conditions.” Mascourt admits that it would be possible to resort to “la picaresca” to open swimming pools in hotels or in neighboring communities. But he leaves the matter in the hands of the town councils: “In a certain case, some agreement can be reached because the ordinance allows it, but that is not the goal.” And this choice was strong. “It's not about going to the city council and asking them to declare your pool a climate sanctuary. That's not how it works and it's not going to work, let's be serious.”
Despite the doubts of many councils about what to do with these complex situations, the government will keep the decree as it is and leave it to each municipality to decide which swimming pools are necessary and which are not.
Barcelona has already decided to include all municipal swimming pools (more than 50) as climate shelters so that they can be filled, although the city's deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, described the decree as “not serious” and criticized the “improvisation” of the Catalan executive. Like other localities, Barcelona criticizes the government that delegates decisions to city councils. The council is looking into how to set swimming pool prices so that they are not prohibitive to anyone.
Regarding private swimming pools, Bonnet preferred not to comment and stressed that they had not yet decided how to act in these cases. However, it does not close the door to their inclusion in the climate shelters offer.
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