We must go back to no less than 1995, to the fifth Tour de Induráin, when the Grand Prix triumphed in the prime time television and “El Tiburón” on the radio, to find a year in which Spain faced such an urgent drought. The country’s water reserves stood at 39.2% at the beginning of the week — far from the 47% that the reservoirs marked a year ago — and in much of the country measures to combat drought are beginning to be considered or have already been activated.
The million dollar question is: How did we get to this situation? Why have our reservoirs reached such a low occupancy level that it forces us to look for solutions?
The most obvious explanation is given by the weather, the lack of rain; but there are those who provide another key piece of information: the consumption we are making of our resources.
What is the situation? The Weekly Hydrological Bulletin is quite clear: our current hydraulic reserve is 21,730 cubic hectometres (hm3), which places it at 39.2% of its capacity, well below the average of the last decade. The normal thing for these dates would be that we touched the 32,700 hm3. To find a lower level, you have to go back to the mid-1990s, when during the same period the swamps were around 31% full.
A reality that already has consequences. The prospect that the water shortage could worsen has already led several institutions to make a move. The Catalan Water Agency (ACA) warned days ago that if the outlook does not change and the coming weeks are not accompanied by rain, it will have to apply restrictions in September. And she’s not the only one who thinks so.
Galicia sees how control measures are extended to dozens of municipalities, including some crossed by up to three rivers. Similar situations are faced in other regions spread throughout the country, such as Andalusia, Cantabria, Castilla y León or Extremadura.
What does the weather say? If we have less water than usual, it is largely because we receive less than normal. Data from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) show that so far this hydrological year —between October last year and this week— around 26% less rainfall has accumulated than the normal average.
The levels are below the standard values in a large part of the peninsula, the Canary archipelago, the western third and interior of the peninsula, almost all of Andalusia, Catalonia, Guadalajara and the Canary Islands, with areas where it is not even reached. 75% of normal values. In Galicia, the rains in July for the community as a whole were 67% lower than the average.
beyond the clouds. The lack of rain may not be the only explanation, however. The coordinator of Ecologistas en Acción, Santiago Martín Barajas, recalls that although we have had a dry autumn and winter, in spring, a determining season in the final hydrological balance, the rains exceeded the average by 12%. For the representative of the environmental association, the situation facing the country is largely explained by another factor: the use we make of water.
“More than the lack of rain, what happens is that there is an excess of consumption, generated by irrigation, whose surface does not stop growing, and already far exceeds four million hectares,” he stresses in an article published in the digital diary The jump. According to the data handled by the environmental group, today it already accounts for between 85 and 93% of the country’s total water consumption, depending on whether or not the water that returns to the system after use is taken into account.
More than drought, what there is is an excess of consumption.
The drought problem derives from poor management and excessive consumption of water in irrigation, and not so much from the lack of rain.It is necessary to reduce irrigation until the levels in the reservoirs are recovered.https://t.co/ZCI0tm1rMY
– Santiago M. Barajas (@Santi_MBarajas) August 10, 2022
Data from the environmental association. The collective maintains that the final percentage could be even higher if other sources that escape the official record are valued.
“And that without taking into account illegal irrigation, which has always been estimated at between five and ten percent, but in some recently studied areas it has been seen to amount to no less than 30%,” warns Martín before recalling the promise of the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, to legalize 1,600 hectares of irrigated land distributed around the Doñana area.
Differences between territories. By way of argument and to underline his hypothesis, Martín recalls that in the Community of Madrid the reservoirs are at 63%, operated by the Canal de Isabel II and dedicated almost exclusively to urban supply, they are at 63%, 23 points above the national average as a whole. The situation is diametrically different in Andalusia, with a crucial weight of irrigation. There, he reminds him, they are below 30%.
Ecologists in Action also points out how irrigation has been extended throughout the year —especially in the south of the peninsula and the Mediterranean coast— and the change in the role of reservoirs, which “have gone from being water stores to become transfer stations. Regarding the final use in the sector, he emphasizes: “75% of the fruit and vegetable production is destined for export”.
Cover image | Oatsy40 (Flickr)