1. La Trinca was very generous to the Besòs River when, taking advantage of the well-known waltz by Johann Strauss Jr., they wrote the lyrics for their song. The Blue DanubeIn 1975, he said that "the Besòs is green." And that was a gross understatement. Back then, it was one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. There was no life, practically no fish. Toxic foam was visible, and the stench was overwhelming for many days of the year. The lack of environmental regulations during the Franco regime and the scarcity of effective legislation meant that pollution went almost unpunished. Uncontrolled industrialization in the river basin, in the Vallès region and the Barcelona area, turned the river into a dumping ground with virtually no treatment. As a result, textile, chemical, and metallurgical companies contaminated the water with heavy metals and a whole host of toxic products. And it wasn't a crime. And there was no awareness of the damage being done to nature and the landscape. Furthermore, urban wastewater—in a time when towns and cities lacked treatment plants—turned some stretches of the Besòs into an open sewer. We can add that it was a river with a low natural flow, where pollutants became highly concentrated, and that aggressive urbanization along the riverbank gradually devoured the native vegetation. For all these reasons, the Besòs was the shame of Barcelona's northern border.

There are reasons to continue investigating whether the activity of the Besòs waste incinerator has polluted the air and harmed the health of the residents of the area between 2015 and 2019. With this argument, the Barcelona Court has decided to reopen the case against the Tersa plant for an alleged crime against natural resources and the environment. The case had been provisionally closed in May by Badalona's Investigating Court No. 5, considering that Tersa had not engaged in "any criminally unlawful conduct." Now, however, the Court concludes that the closing was "premature" and orders a trial to assess whether the plant incinerated urban waste at temperatures below 850 degrees—the only way to destroy pollutants without affecting the atmosphere—and whether it emitted chemicals harmful to human health.

Josep Lluís Armenter took over as head of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) in October, when reservoirs were at 28% of capacity and half the country was still subject to consumption restrictions. Now it's raining, and the reserves are at the best situation in the last three years and spring is expected to be bountiful.

The fact that the reservoir level, on average, is above 50% is good news. Very good. For starters, it guarantees a summer that won't suffer as much as the previous one in most of the country. It's been almost three years, since July 2022, since there was a similar amount of water in the reservoirs. The rains in March have made their mark. But we also know that there is a good depth of accumulated snow in the Pyrenees, which will guarantee more water when the thaw comes, and that forecasts indicate that this spring will be rainy. Yes, we can breathe a sigh of relief, but what we can't do is sleep, thinking that the problem is already solved and we've emerged unscathed.

The Generalitat has identified 236 vulnerable areas throughout Catalonia. Many are neighbourhoods; others, specific areas of small municipalities that also require special attention from the administration. This list includes everything from the Congost neighbourhood in Granollers or Camp Clar in Tarragona, to the old quarter of Alfarràs, a municipality in Segrià with 2,800 inhabitants.