Hi

thinking of moving to andalucia region soon for retirement
how do you manage the water problem as some properties I notice have a license for an hours water a week
I am used to using water - like water here

how do you overcome this shortage?

An hours water a week? Where did you read that?
I can only speak on our area, but I have not known a water shortage or restrictions since we have been here

it was a country house for sale near salobrena I think
thought it was strange although I know water is a sought after commodity in rural Spain

so if you are in a rural area is water restricted then?

My guess is that they fill an underwater storage tank once a week and has absolutely nothing to do with restrictions or water shortages.

that would explain it

That being the case this is a house you should not give the slightest though of buying/renting.

We are not so far from Salobreña going east, dont have a problem, been told we have enough water for next couple of years.

We do have mains, would never have bought without mains water

It's an agricultural water supply.

It's quite normal in the Campo.

We are allowed one hour of water a week. What that means is that a nice guy on a moped turns up after we have paid for the hours supply and turns on the tap in the road connected to our water tank.

It's on for exactly one hour and in that time we get 170000 litres of water - no that's not a typo - that's 170 M3 (170 tonnes) of water - it's a very big pipe!

It costs €24 - compare that to what you pay in the town!

There is no shortage of water in this area and since they have completed the new Rules Dam south of Granada there will be no problems for the foreseeable future - it is one of the largest dams in Europe. We are expecting to see the cost of water reducing by well over 50% when the supply from this dam becomes available.

With the cost of water in the towns increasing all the time having a supply like this is a huge advantage.

Thats some pipe! Our pool is 14x5x1.5m thats 105m3 and it took a week to fill with a 1 inch hose at full mains pressure.

so does that hour fill a tank for all drinking and washing water for a week? plus filling a pool if you have one

that being so, is it a good idea buying in the campo ?

What shortage?
Yes there are times of draught here, but after two wet winters we now have enough water here in Andalucia to last three years, even if it doesn't rain again in that time.
The three reservoirs near us are so full they have been letting water out for weeks now.
We live in the campo but are lucky enough to be connected to town water, for this we pay 2€ per month and there are no restrictions on use, other than if we were to use a huge amount then the cost would be a little more. That has only happened to us one time, that was when a friend who lives in deepest campo took 250gallon from our tap....it only cost us 1€ more.

Another reason for the licence for one hours water a week could relate to the use of the irrigation channels.
I know that some friends of ours have a certain time each week when the irrigation channel is opened on their finca in order to water their orange trees.

We obtain our water from a spring. There is a pipe that runs from the spring, about 1km away, to the deposito. This deposito is water for three homes. We have now been informed by the Galician government that we will now be charged a tax on the water. We do not know how much yet.

Of course, if there are any problems with the pipework or deposito it is not their problem.

One hour a week is the maximum that you are allowed. How often you need to fill up depends on how you use the water.

In the winter we can last for a few months, in the summer with the irrigation on it lasts about 5 weeks.

When you initially join one of the water cooperatives, you have to buy a share. That entitles you to one hour. If you have a large amount of land and require more, you just buy more shares and hence more hours.

A share can be expensive but if you are buying an existing property the share is transferred to the new owner.

We live in a village and have both a well and mains, we have never had problems with water. We also sell a lot of country properties, all of which have wells with ample water. I expect it may be an area thing, we are Inland Andalucia.

I have a different deal.
I am a shareholder, they came with the house, transfer cost 200€.
I pay 6€ a month (just gone up from 4) for that I get 35,000 Cu meters every eight days - Two shares. It's enough !