Private pools: the ban dividing Spain's summer

155,000 litres per pool: the figure stirring up the water war

Summer brings back the same old question: should private pools be banned? The trigger this time is not a rule, but a debate that kicks off with two spelling mistakes in the question itself: «proibirse» and «pribadas». Beyond grammar, drought, water prices and the limits of private leisure have turned the swimming pool into a symbol of the battle over a scarce resource.

A pool's water: 155,000 litres that never get drained

The figure that keeps coming up is 155,000 litres, the approximate capacity of an average pool. But actual consumption depends on what you do with that water. Some argue that having a filtration system and never draining the pool keeps costs down to evaporation, partly offset by rainfall; one case cited has gone 20 years without changing the water. Another recalls that in the 1970s, without filtration systems, pools were drained three or four times a summer: four siblings using it all day for four or five months. The technology has changed; the stigma has not.

Public pools: the other front

The debate is not limited to private pools. One current of opinion argues that what should be closed are the public ones, blaming them for hygiene and overcrowding problems in high season. Opposing them are those who defend swimming as a climate refuge and point out that private pools, at least, are paid for by their owners. The issue thus becomes a tug-of-war between the right to enjoy one's own property and the duty not to waste what belongs to everyone.

Water management: the tap is in charge, not the glass

The strongest argument raised links the problem to distribution, not quantity. There is water; what is missing is piping, pricing and political decisions. Spain's Plan Hidrológico Nacional (National Hydrological Plan) is mentioned as the great failed project that would have guaranteed plenty of resources, while the surplus flows out to sea. Ornamental fountains and leaks in the network are singled out as bigger wasters than any pool.

As the debate gets tangled up between the missing accent and the missing letter, the suspicion remains that banning is the easiest way to avoid managing. The final proposal does not call for closing pools: it calls for banning the letter V. That says just about everything.