It sprinkled for 45 minutes in Valencia center last Saturday and yesterday i got news of rain near Gandia

Was checking webcam last night and nice showers in Lloret.
Luckily some more rain likely later this afternoon, unfortunately the usual picture further down.

There MAY be some respite from the drought in sight later in the year if predictions of an El Niño event this year are correct.

Qué es El Niño, el fenómeno que traería un otoño lluvioso a España y récords de calor (msn.com)

I saw the news today that catalonia is going to pass a law in the next few days prohibiting refilling private pools ?

And a few towns in the cordoba province have been cut off from the mains supply, and they are bringing trucks of water into the towns ? Must be a pain.

Funny how my neibour (in aeg), hoses down the street for 20 metres either side of her front door "to cool the road down".. she does this every night.

Just seen the news and it looks like they are going to ban the filling of pools as the drought continues. Murica have announced it and Andalucía. Valencia is considering it. Obviously pools already full is no problem but new pools or ones that are going to be worked on will be affected. It looks like it is going to be a very hot dry summer.

I wonder if that "ban" would include exterior municipal pools? They seem to be emptying and preparing to clean n fill ours here near Gandia..
Do not know if it is prematurely early or normal at this time of the year here..

They already banned it, but then they realised there local elections were about to happen so they unbanned it. Later on after the elections they'll ban it again...

Just looked it up and read this article
https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/05/...istant-drought
Shocking: It has not rained in the villages north of the city of Cordoba for months, and that means that the drinking water from the Sierra de Boyera reservoir is almost empty. A local water company now collects water from another lake where dairy farmers have discharged manure for years, making the tap water available dangerous to drink and cook with.
Now local residents have to get their drinking water delivered by truck.

https://www.euronews.com/video/2023/...istant-drought

The government are convening today for an emergency meeting to deal with the drought. Looks like there might be quite severe measures being put forward. Certainly going to be bans on filling pools and watering gardens, car washing etc. Possibly water cuts being implemented etc. They are also going to bring in regulations controlling working conditions for outside workers and even warnings for tourists about using beaches during the hottest part of the day. Good news is there is some rain expected today!!

Quick question, sorry if its a silly one, but... We live in a rural property, get our water from a private well, owned by one of the residents, does the water restrictions affect that also? Thanks

People in Suances are wondering when the showers will stop. These conditions really do show how different Spain can be.
https://www.aemet.es/en/eltiempo/pre...uances-id39085

Good question. What about people with a legal well using it within their agreed annual limits?

at the end of the day, like Covid regs, the idea no doubt is to get everyone to be sensible. There will be carefully selected ( one hopes) examples made of those that dont.

One of the points being raised is relevant to this. If you follow the Spanish news you will know there is an ideological fight going on between the government and opposition concerning the national park in Andulcia. The right want to be able to use parts of it to provide water for the local agricultural business but the left and the EU are opposed saying it will destroy the natural habitat. There is also the problem with illegal irrigation from the park. This highlights the problem which is that private water sources could come under somekind of state control. It is early days and until the elections in May are over its unlikely any national measures will be implemented but if the pessimistic forecasts are correct it is clear that unless something is done soon spain could lapse into a severe agricultural crash this year leading to further food inflation and all the consequences that follow. Interestingly I saw a photo from the air of the land around alicante and the number of private pools is astonishing- I imagine somekind of regulations will be brought in to deal with such a use of water now that we are nearly living in a desert.

It was a while ago, I did hear that some politicians suggested a sort of Environmental Tax. To restrict the amount of newcomers that want to move to drought ridden areas, Foreigners or Expats should pay higher taxes.
Of course some argue it would be discrimination and wouldn't be approved. Hotels would be another target and the tourist tax is set to increase further, but I'd say in the next 10 years this amount would need to be around €15 per day.

I am up in Galicia at the moment. Plenty of water here!

Spain is at a crossroads in my view. Do something epic or let the desert claim the south.

The opportunity is there to do something epic. Eg A national water grid, massive desalination plants, regularisation of water usage. There is even huge amounts of money available in the form of the 70 billion of EU recovery grants. Sadly the latter will vanish into a few pockets in the form of solar grants ( first beneficiaries will doubtless be the groups behind the vast solar farms springing up everywhere but that is a separate topic)

in my industry, sinking an unregistered borehole and putting in a pump, a few solar panels and buried pipework more or less doubles the yield year on year. A no brainer except the farmers are sucking the aquifers dry. There are twelve within a mile radius of our house alone. All are without permission.

we are heading for a second successive poor olive harvest. Price of oil goes up and the local communities suffer. No money to spend.

I too have been following the Donana and the political debate is the bar topic. I suspect in five years the topic will be the same with everyone still hoping that it will rain next winter.