Re: Spains drying up
 

Yes, Spain was doing really poorly worldwide until now. :huh:

Re: Spains drying up
 

where I am people are not doing well at all with olives. It’s not rained properly In years

Re: Spains drying up
 

And the problem is that the local economy suffers. Less meals out, longer between vehicle services, less purchases made even less coffee/ drinks at local bars.

Re: Spains drying up
 

The rainfall that occurred between Friday and Saturday in the Navarra region has equalled everything the average for the months of September and October.

https://www.elindependiente.com/futu...bre-y-octubre/

Re: Spains drying up
 

all the rain and only 1 percent rise.....
https://euroweeklynews.com/2023/10/2...-one-per-cent/

Re: Spains drying up
 

Watching from Ireland, it's very bad in Catalonia this year. Even now it's still 24-26 °C near Lloret and no rain in sight, which means more tourists and more water needed.
Ironically, even in Ireland I was sitting outside in T-shirt and shorts yesterday and sunny right now, but we know it will rain very soon;).

Re: Spains drying up
 

I was speaking to my friend in Wexford this morning and she said that in Cork, which had bad flooding again last week, people are now finding it difficult to get house insurance, and the amount paid out in claims for last year's flooding was so high that premiums rose for every policyholder in the country.
My stepdaughter, who lives in Derby near the river, was unable to cross a bridge to get to work last week as the river rose so high they closed the bridges to pedestrians. Luckily they weren't flooded but some areas in the Midlands suffered badly, with one elderly lady tragically having drowned in her home when the floodwater rose to a height of 5 ft.

Here, I read last week that the amount of water supplied to local areas from Lake Vinuela is to be cut by a further 15%, which no doubt will mean the extension of restrictions on usage, but nothing has been heard about that as yet. We've had rain on a couple of days during the last week but nothing remarkable. Madrid, however, had floods again including the Metro.

Everywhere seems to be either a famine or a feast these days, no such thing as a happy medium.

Re: Spains drying up
 

20%... it's looking a bit grim.

Re: Spains drying up
 

Yes, Midleton in Cork was hit very badly. Unfortunately flooding is often very localised and it happens quite often down there. Instead of solving the root cause they seem to build more homes and then people are surprised why it's getting worse in an already flood prone area. Where I am was nothing really, taken yesterday. Some fields were flooded not too far from us, but again nothing unusual🤞.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...d4d6c319e7.jpg

Re: Spains drying up
 

The mountains of Catalonia are dry as a bone. The cost on agricultural water has gone up.

Re: Spains drying up
 

It has now been announced that the night-time cuts in water supplies in the areas supplied by the Viñuela reservoir (now at 7.7% of capacity) will be extended by a further hour, from 10.30 pm to 8.30 am. We continue to get sporadic rainfall, but not very much of it.

Sequía en Málaga: Amplían los cortes nocturnos en Vélez-Málaga por la situación del embalse de La Viñuela | Diario Sur

Re: Spains drying up
 

That is tough Lynn. We too have had very little rain. The farmers are still installing totally unregulated olive grove irrigation.

Bit worrying that the Junta de Andalucia have pinned their hopes on “ above average rains this winter”

Re: Spains drying up
 

Unfortunately "we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope it rains" seems to have been their strategy for at least 3 years before this one. And in the meantime no thought has been given as to whether it was really a good idea to let farmers plant more and more crops like mangos and avocados which require so much more irrigation than the traditional crops, or to allow more housing development to increase the pressure on water supplies.

Re: Spains drying up
 

Unfortunately more and more people will be heading to Spain in the coming years, no idea where the water will come from if it continues.
In Málaga an increase of roughly 26.000 more people in one year, if we have another wetter than average winter here in Northern Europe just mean thousands more will come to Spain next year and they mainly move to already drought prone areas.

Re: Spains drying up
 

Malaga is set to overtake the population of Sevilla.

as I said previously, the countryside in Spain exists solely for the exploitation of farmers. If you cannot grow anything, it is declared a national park and given substantial protection.

Re: Spains drying up
 

Greater Barcelona will have water restrictions about a month from now... to which my question is, why not now?

La sequía se agrava en otoño: "La entrada en emergencia del área de Barcelona es inevitable"

Re: Spains drying up
 

Can kicking down the road?

Re: Spains drying up
 

Two days after the previous announcement about the extension of water cuts in my area, now the supply is going off another half hour earlier, at 10 pm instead of 10.30! These cuts haven't impacted us so far because we live in an apartment and there is a tank downstairs from which water is pumped up (works well until there is a power cut and then we have no water at all!) and being retired we very rarely have a need to use water during the night or early in the morning, but it must be getting very difficult for those who get back from work late, start work early in the mornings or have to get children ready for school as the water is now off until 8.30 am.

Aumentan en media hora más los cortes de agua en Vélez-Málaga | Diario Sur

Re: Spains drying up
 

Some respite

https://spanishnewstoday.com/heavy-r...2275350-a.html

Re: Spains drying up
 

Can't see where that is referring to but certainly there has been ZERO rain in Valencia Comunidad for months - keeps being forecast but never arrives

Re: Spains drying up
 

Another day, another announcement! Now they are saying that the water is going to be turned off from 9pm.

Los cortes de agua en Vélez-Málaga se adelantan a las 9 de la noche - AxarquiaPlus

Re: Spains drying up
 

I bet someone is doing a roaring trade in installing bidon’s so there is water 24 hours. When we have water outages ( due to old infrastructure) the repairs are never prompt on the assumption everyone has a bidon! We don’t but have bottled water in store for those occasions. Part of life here.

Re: Spains drying up
 

I'm glad your apartment block has a deposito, you would be really stuck without it.

Our place in Spain is near to you (slightly inland east of Malaga) and the Vinuela reservoir is very low as you mentioned. We don't have town water and are still just about managing with well water but will need a 10,000 litre lorry load of water fairly soon.

As Moses said, more and more people are moving to the Malaga province year on year and it's noticeably busier - year round tourism has really taken off too. This may sound mad but what is needed is a massive water pipeline that pumps water into the Vinuela reservoir from somewhere in the north.

Pipelines are possible for oil and gas so why not water?

Re: Spains drying up
 

Now that the water supply is apparently going to be shut off from 9 pm, I think the deposito may well not be enough as many residents (all Spanish apart from us) wouldn't even have started cooking their evening meal, then washing the dishes, getting children ready for bed etc. by that time so it could more than likely all get used up.

Pipelines from other regions might be politically difficult to achieve (would other regions want "their" water going to Andalucia?) apart from being expensive and taking a long time to construct. I could see them being vulnerable to unscrupulous farmers who would want to tap into the supply without paying for it, and ensure supplies for their crops without considering domestic consumers.

Re: Spains drying up
 

After spending millions of EU money on the huge dam on the road from the coast to Granada (the Rules Dam), they have, only 20 years later, thought about actually connecting it up to the Costa Tropical irrigation system. Two pipes, 17km long costing €62m will start construction in January.

So, pipelines are possible, but the south will be a desert before it gets connected the the wetter areas.

Re: Spains drying up
 

Good point and even the wettest areas don't seem to have enough water. When you look to the North, they still have droughts and use enough water themselves.

Re: Spains drying up
 

I said this earlier in the thread and got shot down pretty fast....
Does the government have the use of eminent domain here in Spain?

Re: Spains drying up
 

If the Arabs can build mega cities in the desert, then I don’t see why the Spanish can’t build something to move water to dry places. They are on about having to boat water into Barcelona if the drought continues.

Re: Spains drying up
 

The Arabs have oil to finance desalination plants.

Re: Spains drying up
 

​​​
Sorry, I didn't realise you had already suggested it!

I have no idea how a project of this kind would be financed but it may come to a point where they have no choice. It would certainly be a very major undertaking and it might have to be a pan European project with the water coming from France and serving Portugal too.

As far as I know, the Spanish government have the power of compulsory purchasing of land with compensation.

Re: Spains drying up
 

Finance isn’t the issue. Political will is. The EU has just given Italy something like 170 billion and Spain something like 80 billion of OUR money to regenerate and boost the economy. Here a lot of that will go on grants to big business creating huge solar farms. A lot will just vanish with little accountability.

There is a national network of trunk roads. A pipeline network could be constructed. Dozens more (solar powered) desalination plants could be constructed. Israel are pretty good at desalination and reuse of water. There isnt the will. Perhaps a problem not helped by having Self governing Regions and a weak central government.

Malaga is set to overtake Seville population wise. No real sign of regulation of farmers re irrigation. The recent “ swoop” on a square kilometre of olives centred on our house by the junta produced zero denuncias for illegal irrigation within the last five years. Should have been two. The auditing officers crossed double figures of illegal current irrigation they could easily have investigated due to “ road crossings” crudely repaired on the road to the target sq km. As I said earlier the countryside here exists solely for the exploitation by farmers. If you cannot grow crops, they call it a national park.

Re: Spains drying up
 

The President of the Junta de Andalucia has just announced that "portable" desalination machinery is to be installed in my area (and in Marbella). I didn't know such a thing existed. The building of an actual desalination plant doesn't seem to be progressing any faster than the usual glacial pace of any major infrastructure project, they haven't even decided which bid to accept yet. They are also going to instal a new connection point to the water treatment system so that water can be brought in by ship if necessary.

Juanma Moreno anuncia la instalación de desaladoras portátiles en la Axarquía - AxarquiaPlus

Re: Spains drying up
 

The Arabs have trillions to sport wash and get rid of by any means hence Man City buying the treble every year, Newcastle going from nobody's to somebody's and a world cup in the winter in a country that doesn't even have a football team.... Not to mention LIV golf etc whereas Spain appears bankrupt in comparison.....

Re: Spains drying up
 

Let us hope this works and is beneficial

https://www.spainenglish.com/2023/11...rom-drying-up/