To Suez, the general consensus between Catalan civil society organizations, academic and government officials to protect the Ebro river from potential transfers as suggested by the 2001 National Hydrological Plan, provided the ideal breeding ground  to promote desalination as a problem-free technological fix.  In 2006, Suez was entrusted with the design and the construction of Barcelona's reverse osmosis  desalination plant, the largest in Europe for urban water supply. The Llobregat desalination plant entered into service in 2009 and it was declared it would supply 20% of Barcelona’s metropolitan population drinking water  (II). 

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In its website, the utility company describes its activities: managing the water supply for urban areas while reducing withdrawals from drinking water supplies, limiting the use of surface water and respecting biodiversity and the marine ecosystem (II). Yet, no specific measures are mentioned on how the company contributes to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the plant in the mediterranean littoral, especially by the brine. Moreover, no reasons are explained as why surface water use should be limited, especially when the Llobregat-Ter river network has been affluent in recent years and predictions show that annual water contributions will not get lower than current ones and that climate change is likely to affect only modestly local and regional water scarcity (19)