Almost nine million people already suffer from water restrictions due to the drought in Spain

The thousand inhabitants residing in the town of El Borge (Málaga) have suffered water cuts every morning for a month. The faucet does not put out a drop between midnight and seven in the morning, in order to give time for the municipal tank to recover and supply the neighbors throughout the day. “This is a ruin, it is not a warning, the wolf is already here,” says the mayor, Raúl Vallejo, pessimistically, who looks askance at how the reservoir from which they drink, La Viñuela, is barely at 8.6% of its capacity , its historical minimum. According to the data provided by Greenpeace, like them there are more than a hundred towns and cities in Andalusia with some type of restriction, to which are added some other isolated points and the almost 500 declared in a state of exceptionality in Catalonia. In total, more than 8.7 million people are already affected by some limitation with the use of water due to the drought. The majority are in Catalonia (about 6.6 million) and Andalusia (about two million), but there are also restrictions in associations of Extremadura, and municipalities of Galicia, the Balearic Islands or Aragon (another 150,000).

“Climate change and poor water management are wreaking havoc, not only in the country’s fields and ecosystems, but also among people,” they stress from Greenpeace, an organization that ensures that the use made of this essential resource in many parts of the country is worsening the drought. The agricultural sector is the most affected by the prolonged water shortage, which is an economic disaster for many families, but for ecologists, intensive agriculture and livestock are at the same time at the root of the problem, since “they consume 80% of the resources”. “We have an unsustainable model,” underlines Julio Barea, head of Greenpeace’s water campaign, who believes that the situation is only on track to worsen given the scant forecast of rain, at least “until the end of September.” The drought is also affecting wildlife —in Andalusia artificial drinking troughs are already being installed to prevent death from thirst— and tourism, for example, given the impossibility of practicing sports in empty reservoirs.

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The drought hits Catalonia in a special way. 495 municipalities in this community already suffer from some type of restriction promoted both by the internal basins managed by the Generalitat and by the Ebro Hydrological Confederation —which depends on the central government— which covers all of Lleida and part of the province of Tarragona. Around 90% of the territory already has some type of restriction, with a wide range: from limiting the washing of streets with drinking water to watering gardens or prohibiting activities such as car washing, in addition to reducing the quota for the countryside . The lack of rain forced this week to go one step further and declare a state of emergency —the worst possible scenario— in 22 municipalities of Girona. “We come from 30 months of drought,” said Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), on Wednesday, because not even the good rainfall in May and June in a large part of the community have served to recharge the aquifers. “The situation could get even worse, since the municipalities and cities served by the Llobregat and Ter rivers could also enter this emergency situation shortly,” add Greenpeace sources, who point out that this could happen around November “if It’s still not raining.”

supply cuts

The most drastic option has been to cut off the supply for several hours every morning, as is the case in some forty municipalities in the other hardest-hit community, Andalusia. The largest of these is that of Vélez-Málaga, whose 80,000 inhabitants —a figure that doubles during the August holidays— see how nothing comes out of the tap every night. “The cuts depend on consumption and deposits,” said the councilor for the branch, Jesús María Claros, at a press conference this Thursday. “They are unavoidable at the moment,” added the manager of the public company Aqualia, Javier Portero. The measure works. “We are achieving that there is water, which is not little,” indicate municipal sources. The cuts started in Veleño territory at the beginning of July at the indications of the Junta de Andalucía and with the aim of reducing consumption by 20% in this and half a dozen other neighboring municipalities in the Axarquía region. They all get their supplies from the La Viñuela reservoir, with its reserves practically depleted and closed to subtropical agriculture for almost a year. Today it is at 8.66% of its capacity —with only 14 cubic hectometres— and there is no certainty for how long it can continue to be used for sanitary reasons.

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subscribeBathers enjoyed the beach of Torre del Mar (Vélez-Málaga) where the public showers have their water supply cut off due to drought restrictions. Garcia-Santos

To alleviate the situation, the area already receives supplies from the provisions of Malaga and from the catchments of the Chíllar river, in Nerja, which Ecologists in Action denounce as already overexploited. They are insufficient for consumption by the population and will worsen in the future, which is why the Government announced a few weeks ago the construction of a desalination plant in the area, in which it will invest some 100 million euros. It has already signed an agreement with the Junta de Andalucía, but everything remains to be done: its location is not known, nor are there deadlines.

Malaga has been the last major capital to join the restrictions. This same Friday it has announced that the beach showers will not be operational as of next Tuesday, following the example of all the municipalities on the eastern coast of Malaga —with the exception of Nerja— and other points on the coast of Huelva and Cádiz —such as Ayamonte , Tarifa or La Línea de la Concepción. In Malaga, these facilities account for barely 0.24% of the city’s water expenditure, according to municipal data, but City Council sources believe that the measure will serve to raise awareness among a population whose supply is guaranteed, as reported by Penélope Gómez, councilor of the Environmental Sustainability Area of ​​the consistory.

awareness campaigns

Awareness is one of the key points both for municipalities and for the companies responsible for distributing water. “It is a rare commodity”, Aurelio Fernández, president of Aguas de Lucena and mayor of this Cordoba city that suffers water cuts, recalled days ago. Another 24 municipalities in the north of this province have been experiencing supply problems from the La Colada reservoir for months. A dozen towns in the Sierra de Aracena also suffer cuts. The public company Giahsa informs on its social networks of the cuts that affect the municipalities and their hours, which vary depending on the time necessary to recover the minimum levels of deposits. In some cases, the supply is carried out with tanker trucks.

They also do not have night supply in Casariche, in Seville, where the capital already decreed a drought alert last fall, although according to the forecasts of the municipal water supply and supply company (Emasesa) there are sufficient reserves to supply the city for the next 12 months, reports Eva Saiz. The new mayor of Seville, the popular José Luis Sanz, has indicated, however, that it will be in September when the municipal plan against drought is reviewed. At present, the measures for saving water are limited to the prohibition of the use of drinking water from the network for irrigation of green areas, the irrigation of streets or the impossibility of filling swimming pools without a closed circuit, among others. In 2021, Seville launched a plan to encourage saving in water consumption to reduce liters of water per inhabitant from 116 to 90. So far it has been reduced to 112.

On the other hand, in Galicia, in four municipalities of the A Mariña region, in the north of Lugo, the use of drinking water for non-essential activities such as watering gardens, filling swimming pools or washing cars has been prohibited. These are Barreiros, Xove, O Valadouro and Alfoz. Added to the lack of rain in recent months is the strong increase in consumption during the tourist season, reports Sonia Vizoso.

Belesar reservoir on the Miño river, on August 3. Carlos Castro (Europa Press)

In Extremadura, the nine municipalities of the community of Tentudía (Badajoz) suffer nightly cuts in the supply of drinking water after the activation of phase III of the Drought Emergency Plan, which also provides for cuts in suburban areas and the prohibition of watering gardens and green areas, fill fountains or clean the streets. Neither can you wash vehicles or fill public or private pools, a measure that the 21 municipalities of the Commonwealth of Llerena (Badajoz) have suffered for a long time, in which water consumption has been limited to 189 liters per person per day.

The effects of the drought and the increase in the population during the summer in the Aragonese Pyrenees have made it necessary to supply water to a town that lacks sufficient supply resources these days by means of a tanker truck from the Fire Prevention, Extinction and Salvage (SPEIS). As reported by the Diputación de Huesca, the truck has begun this week to collaborate with all the populations that have requested this support. In addition, on August 1, the service’s firefighters supplied the inhabitants of Nachá with 21,000 liters of water, and on Thursday they transferred another 14,000 liters to the town of Aguinaliu.

Since Friday, the City Council of Deià, in Majorca, in the Balearic Islands, has kept the water supply to large consumers, such as hotels, and homes far from the urban area, cut off. The increase in demand due to the increase in population and tourism in the summer months have made the available water insufficient, as announced by the City Council. The council now has only 170 tons of water from the Font des Molí and current consumption is 600 tons per day. In addition, the endowment for the supply with tanker trucks is practically exhausted, so the supply of the entire population cannot be ensured and the municipal corporation has decided to cut off the water supply, reports Lucía Bohórquez. Likewise, in Menorca, the Ciutadella City Council has temporarily interrupted the shower and footbath service on the municipality’s beaches.

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