Pro- desalination news outlets

 

In general, we observe that in pro-desalination news articles, especially from the date the plant was inaugurated, the new plant is portrayed as a crucial contingency asset that will guarantee a greater water supply in times of drought, reducing the risk of recurring crisis. It is the price that needs to be paid to insure a backup of the resource. In the end desalination is considered much cheaper than not having it in severe water stress periods. Desalination is defined as “a guardian angel that covers the back of the system.”

 

In terms of rhetorical strategies and following Teun A. Van Dijk’s (2006) framework, we observe constant repetition of facts and numbers, leading to the emergence of number games relying on very specific and micro level data.  For the figure that the plant will treat 20% of the water consumed by in the city’s area, data is reproduced from that available at the desalination plant and Suez’s website (II). As for the reference to the fact that the plant will supply 4.5 million Catalans with better quality and better taste water, data comes from the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and from the Government of Catalonia’s web site on the desalination plant (V). The use of evidence denotes authority, shows legitimacy and possession of the truth, yet this is also often based on a fragmented version of the truth and on biased models of information. For instance, the prediction that water demand in Barcelona will increase  a 10% by 2020, which was used to justify the need for a plant that will absorb this increase in consumption, was provided by Aïgues-The-Llobregat (ATLL), the private company that use to manage water supply and distribution in the city.  We also have current data that shows how consumption in Catalonia has decreased (XII). Moreover, it is also stated that in Catalonia every five years hits a drought, for which conventional resources are insufficient. Yet, Forero-Ortiz, Martínez-Gomariz and Monjo (2020), predict that while droughts will increase, they will happen every 20 years. 

 

Some fallacies, in the form of overgeneralization or exaggeration, are also identified, such as the fact that "A fifth of the water consumed will be from the sea". Moreover, from a syntactic approach, the use of conditional and future forms such as “will be able to treat “; “will supply”; “will play a key role”; “it can produce”; “ will be improved”, indicates also a fallacy in the sense that the future is considered as a certainty, and denotes authority in the way desalination is conceived and reproduced in public media as the final solution to water scarcity. 

 

Regarding the lexicon four key categories are identified. First, a securitization of the discourse favoring desalination is identified through the used security-related words: “guarantee”, “security”, “contingency”, “insurance”,  “a guardian angel” (metaphor). Second a hygienist framing using references to “quality”, “smell”, and “taste”, when making reference to desalinated water being better than the Llobregat’s. Third, we observe a discourse grounded on fear of potential drought through the use of words like “threat”, "recurring crises'', “dangerous”, “crisis”, and “risk”. Lastly, we find categories referring to an economic cost benefits analysis in references to “the price to pay”, “it is cheaper”, or “lowest possible cost”.

 

These articles also introduce some disclaimers to justify the controversial underutilization of the plant. They mention that although this “state-of-the-art facility” will potentially increase the bill, authorities will do it gradually and not that much. Morover, they indicate that as the desalination plant is a contingency resource, it cannot operate at its maximum capacity all the time because of economic reasons and has worked at only at 10% of its capacity  because reservoirs had been full and hence, it has been  unnecessary to resort to seawater.

 

The legal battle between Agbar and Acciona over the contract of ATLL for controlling water supply and distribution in the city, including the management of the desalination plant, dominated the public discourse on water and attracted medias’ attention between 2012-2019. The debate over desalination phases out and little attention is given to the actual need of a desalination plant, which further evidences how its need emerged and established as hegemonic and remained unchallenged. Although desalination per se is not questioned, this gives space to question the transparency of desalination actors (ATLL, Acciona, Suez) and their economic interests on lucrative water contracts and concessions.