Newspapers & media

Powerful and institutionalized media such as El País, La Vanguardia, El Periódico, BBC took a rather pro desalination look at desalination at first.

 

For instance la Vanguardia 20/07/2009 : “The desalinated flow will allow a new leap in the quality of water in Barcelona, [...] the plant will consume 2.9 kilowatt hours per m3 of water produced, which is considered a state-of-the-art facility, and will also allow new technological developments”.

 

However, as seen in the discourse analysis timeline in recent years, media like El punt d’avui, El periódico, and even El país have taken a more critical stance on desalination.

 

El Español titles one of its articles in 13/01/2019: “Aigües Ter Llobregat: a scam of a billion to the taxpayer”.

 

In spite of that, according to Lluis Basteiro from AMAP, even today : “The important press will not buy the news of AMAP because they live on subsidies from Agbar. Agbar buys the press with its advertising”.

 

This media have played a huge part in the controversy (or absence thereof in the first years) because of their vast audience : they have shaped to a large extent the discourse around desalination.