Aigües de Barcelona closed 2021 with a profit of 4.9 million euros, 25.6% more than in 2020. A result that continues to be conditioned by the impact of the health crisis caused by covid-19 and which, therefore, remains far from the 22 million euros in earnings obtained in the year prior to the outbreak of the pandemic.
The balance of the last year "of difficult management" is having met a double objective: guaranteeing the continuity of the service with the same quality as always and preserving the safety and health of the workforce of 1,122 workers, as reported by the company this Wednesday during the general shareholders' meeting.
In this context, and as a measure of financial prudence, Aigües de Barcelona has decided not to distribute dividends this year among its three shareholders: Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona (Agbar Group), CriteriaCaixa (La Caixa Banking Foundation) and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB).
The company detailed in a statement that "318 million euros in taxes unrelated to the supply have been collected on the water bill and an additional 46 million euros related to the water service have been borne".
Aigües de Barcelona, which has not provided data on annual turnover, estimates the direct and indirect impact of its activity at 672.26 million euros, of which 557.68 million were generated in Catalonia, and of these, 511.25 million in the metropolitan area. This activity of the company represents the generation of 0.23% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Catalonia, according to the Integrated Social Value (ISV) Report of the company, prepared by the consultancy Valora.
Aigües de Barcelona, in addition, has generated the equivalent of a total of 7,288 full-time jobs in Spain, 13% more than in 2020, of which 6,191 were in Catalonia and 5,861 in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, 18% more than in 2020.
The company also highlighted that of its 1,312 suppliers, 98.1% are national and 71.1% are local and belong to the province of Barcelona.
Social impact, investment of 20 million
In 2021, the social water tariff benefited more than 53,000 households, including pensioners, unemployed people and people in vulnerable situations, which represents 4.9 million euros in subsidies.
For the current year, the number of favored families will rise to 70,000 vulnerable households in the entire metropolitan area, following the agreement reached by the Metropolitan Council of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) for a 100% bonus on the first two sections of the water bill with the social tariff.
At the shareholders' meeting, the company's social measures were also reviewed, such as the Solidarity Fund, implemented starting in 2012, which subsidized water bills for more than 46,000 vulnerable families, with an investment exceeding 20 million euros, until its conversion last year to the new social tariff.
New tariffs in the metropolitan area in 2022
For its part, the plenary session of the Metropolitan Council of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) has initially approved a 4.02% increase in the water tariff for the 23 municipalities supplied by Aigües de Barcelona.
This is the first increase in seven years and will mean an average increase in the bill of 0.60 euros per month. In fact, the increase is 2.5 points lower than the CPI increase ---of 6.5% in the last year--- and leaves the new tariff below the 2015 price.
In 2022, the water bill in the metropolitan area will increase by 0.60 euros per monthIn subsequent years, 2016 and 2018, the metropolitan administration applied reductions in the price of water, of 2.40% and 1.65% respectively. In 2017 and 2019 they were frozen, and in 2020 a reduction of 4.95% was applied, while last year the price was frozen again.
The vice president of ecology of the AMB, Eloi Badia, explained that the new tariff responds to "obligatory commitments: to labor agreements, to the increase in the CPI and to the price of energy" and also to future commitments, such as expanding investments by updating infrastructure and increasing social policies.