1sexsmith

Hang on to your hats- parts of Spain are today starting to restrict water consumption in households. 6 million people in parts of Catalonia today get phase 1 restrictions on daily consumption. The drought is so bad they have no choice. I was at a big construction company yesterday where they had an emergency meeting as they believe restrictions are coming in Valencia and it is going to effect swimming pools particularly - they were worried that communal pools will be affected this summer and this could impact on sales and future projects. Today in Catalonia you cannot wash cars, water gardens or fill pools.

spainrico

I am amazed it has not happened sooner.

I have long since fitted double flush in both toilets and a water-saving shower head.

Only ever use the commercial car wash which recycles water.

1sexsmith

The biggest worry is how it might effect tourism with restrictions on hotels especially pools as this isn't going to be a case of just paying for water like electricity.

Lynn R

Starting? The regulations about not filling swimming pools, watering gardens or washing cars have been in force in my area for 18 months at least. Since June last year the town's water supply has been turned off overnight, and the times during which it is off have been extended twice. This does not really affect properties which have depositos, though. Our apartment building has a tank on the ground floor from which water is pumped up to the floors above, ensuring good water pressure. We are on the top floor and have never been without water late at night or early in the morning since the restrictions came into force, although we would use hardly any during that period anyway. Last summer I was collecting water from the shower and washbasin to give the flowering shrubs in the communal garden some water as I didn't want them to die, although the grass areas were looking awful there wasn't anything I could do about that. It is surprising how quickly the grass greened up again with the bit of rain we've had over the winter. It's in the local press this morning that preparations are under way for water to be brought in tanker ships to the small port of Caleta de Velez in the summer if a lot more rain doesn't arrive (and it isn't looking as if it will), and portable desalination plants are to be installed in various places in Andalucia, including my area. Water will also be shipped in to the port of Málaga.

Vélez-Málaga aumenta las horas de corte de agua: medio día sin suministro (malagahoy.es)

And in a different area, further inland

La sequía empeora la situación en Valle de Abdalajís: 14 horas al día sin agua (malagahoy.es)

Barriej

I hope that was a sarcastic comment.

Because it wont make a jot of difference. Tourists will be unaffected even though the hotels are the biggest wasters of water.
Us residents will be the ones to suffer....
We had low pressure last year during the summer, but the nearest hotel from us was merrily watering its grass and flowerbeds during the day every day.
The pool is empty at the moment as they are doing some work there and I bet it gets refilled from the tap or a tanker or four will turn up to refill it. They dont have irrigation water there either.

My FIL has had his irrigation water turned off every other day for the past six months. He doesn't have much area to water but the trees are suffering.

The last time it rained for more than two hours was last march when we had three weeks of continuous downpours.
Guadalest is the nearest reservoir to us and its at something like 37% now.
vWhen you consider last year they were letting water out as it was almost full.

DLC

For the past month the weather on TV3 has been showing an empty...full reservoir gauge in the corner of the screen which is a good way of making you feel anxious about something you can't really control as most water is used by industry and agriculture.

Even if we were at phase 3 (160l/person/day) we'd still use less than that, so the restrictions look too generous and they should have started about a year ago anyway... that's not to say there were no restrictions over the past year in Catalonia, town councils cut back their water use (parks, gardens, swimming pools, beach and gym showers) and sometimes the pressure was a bit low.

Lynn R

Luxury! The one nearest us, Viñuela, is at 7%.

olivefarmer

The Junta De Andalucia say we need 30. Days of rain. That clearly isnt going to happen. However we are saved. The Junta has gone to Brussels to get more water.

Meanwhile illegal bore holes proliferate and suck the aquifers dry to irrigate crops and trees. Something like 80% of all water is used in agriculture.

1sexsmith

The idea is 90 litres a day if the drought persists to summer.

1sexsmith

The restrictions apply to hotels not just private individuals.

1sexsmith

I think what we are starting to see is that the idea of reducing carbon emissions is simply not going to happen. The farmers this week in Europe are proving that. Trying to achieve lower emissions of CO2 will mean people suffering in ways they simply will not tolerate. The farmers don't like the EU green plans which essentially affect their pockets. It is fine for middle-class professionals and pensioners to protest against fossil fuels but they don't directly rely on them. Farmers provide food and they need copious amounts of phosphates to produce global demands. The production of phosphates is highly energy consuming which requires fossil energy to cope with the requirements. If you reduce yields you reduce profits plus reduce supply. We need to feed 7 billion folk. Huge amounts of the world will starve without present production yields. Add on the droughts and you can see how we are locked into a terrible cycle. The first thing that should be done is the wealthy countries need to reduce luxury consumption. Not food consumption. Easyjet this week announced free travel for grandparents travelling with grandchildren - what a ridiculous luxury and proof that we are fighting a losing battle!!!
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Barriej

Not in Benidorm....

We had days last year where the water was a trickle in the taps (ok we live 300m above sea level and in a tiny village), but Aqualandia (the waterpark) had no reduced water pressure and I know for a fact that one hotel in Benidorm were refilling the pool from the mains as Im friends with the maintenance manager there..

1sexsmith

I was referring to the new rules in Catalonia today which state unequivocally that it applies to the tourist industry not just individuals. I am pretty sure that if similar rules are introduced in Valencia it will not give an exception to hotels and restaurants.

Notdunroamin

90lt/day per person is roughly 5.5m3 per month for a couple.

Fair enough we do not have a pool to fill or top up nor a garden which requires copious watering but in over 6 years we've only used that much that maybe a handful of times, typically it averages 4m3 which is around 67lt/day each but let's call it 70.

The question I have to ask then is what are people doing with water to be consuming much more than that?

Lynn R

I have no idea what we must be doing with water as I didn't think we were profligate with it - we only have showers, no baths and turn off the water whilst we soap up, don't stand under it for very long to rinse off either. Don't flush after every use unless solid waste is involved. Run the dishwasher only every 5 days. We do usually 4 loads of washing a week on a quick wash programme which is supposed to use less water. Don't have a garden to water and use recycled water to water pot plants, no pool. And yet the bill I've just had for 2 months shows we used 13m3 and past usage is remarkably consistent at 12 or 13m3 between the two of us. So we are a long way under 160l person per day, but 18l per day each above 90l if we were to be limited to that. Racking my brains to think how we could cut down.