We are still in drought. Despite the latest rains left by Storm Nelson as it passed through southern Spain, which have increased water reserves and have considerably alleviated the situation of extreme drought that the region had been suffering for more than a year, the alarm continues. there and, as Joaquín Páez, president of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (the most important demarcation in Andalusia), has warned, “we are not going to achieve normality.”
After months of restrictions and consumption limitations, the Easter rainfall has caused the swamps to accumulate this precious liquid and, today, the Andalusian reservoirs are at 42.79% due to the effect of runoff. This scenario has caused irrigators to request an increase in their allocations to be able to carry out their activities and for these requests to be heard. At the moment, and although it is still necessary to officially communicate what expansion this is – information that will be known after the holding of a Discharge Commission that will take place on April 24 -, Paéz has announced that he plans to triple the quotas of water compared to last year, reaching 1,000-1,100 cubic hectometers.
This measure would irrigate the countryside, making a big difference with the hydrological year 2022/2023, “the worst year in the demarcation”, in the words of its president, when farmers could only opt for an allocation of 380 cubic hectometers. Let us remember that this time of extreme drought has had an economic impact on the region of almost 3% of the Andalusian GDP, according to the president of the Board, Juanma Moreno.
Now it is time to debate this matter in the Commission, although it is believed that “among all of us we will make a technical proposal and together we will decide if that proposal goes forward. I think it will be easy to reach an agreement because we come from where we come from,” Páez stressed.
And, with respect to human consumption, which a few months ago was guaranteed for three years, Páez has assured that the 4,600,000 people who depend on the CHG reservoirs have water “guaranteed for up to five years.”
Although things have improved in terms of water, the messages about responsible consumption do not stop. The regional administration has expressed the need not to waste and will launch new awareness campaigns.
Despite the joy that comes from looking at the Andalusian reservoirs full of water, an image far removed from the cracked and thirsty land that left us, for example, the La Viñuela reservoir that supplies the region of Axarquía (Málaga), not long ago , the truth is that the rains have not been distributed throughout the region. Areas like Almería continue to have low reserves and the concern in this area continues.
Although it is true that the idea of ??bringing boatloads of water this summer has been discarded, what is still underway are the necessary works to ensure supply in all parts of Andalusia. This has been confirmed by official sources from the Board, from which it is insisted that they are projects “necessary to continue fighting the drought and the water deficit that still exists in the region”, as well as to prepare Andalusia to face the effects of the climate change.
Nelson has contributed to ‘relaxing’ water restrictive measures in many parts of the region that were in a state of emergency or pre-emergency.
This is the case of the Commonwealth of the Costa Tropical, in Granada, where a state of ‘normality’ has been decreed, as pointed out by the Béznar-Rules Dam Exploitation System Directorate. With this, the 5% water saving measure is deactivated.
The allocations for irrigators in different regions of Malaga are also increased: in the case of Guadalhorce it is expanded to 6 cubic hectometers while in Axarquía more collections and use of regenerated water are allowed. For its part, in the Campo de Gibraltar it is increased to 4 cubic hectometers. In these two provinces, in addition, the quota for human consumption increases to 200 liters per inhabitant per day.
Although we are facing a “good” moment, the Board warns: it will carry out exhaustive control and may reverse course at any time deemed necessary in order to avoid returning to the point from which it started, to the extent possible. That is, the measures are “made more flexible”, they are not eliminated since the drought has not ended. As the spokesperson for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has said actively and passively, the lack of water is a “structural” problem. It will be next June when the situation will be studied again and decisions will be made in this regard.
More than 80,000 residents of northern Córdoba have not had access to water from their homes for almost a year. Since the Sierra Boyera reservoir dried up and the Board declared the water from the La Colada reservoir unfit for human consumption, contaminated as it was at a very low level, the problems in the Guadiato and Los Pedroches regions have not stopped increasing. and to grow. The neighbors, who were supplied by tanker trucks, were crying out for help from the regional government to be able to open the taps in their homes. It was with the last storm that the reservoir that gives them water increased its level to almost 70% of its capacity.
The next step was to analyze the quality of its water to determine that it was suitable for human consumption, something that is being carried out and it was Juanma Moreno himself who confirmed that “in 10 or 15 days” normality will return in this point in Cordoba.
The amount of water impounded in the community, until this Monday, April 8, amounts to 5,120 hm3, which represents an increase of 339 hm3 in one week, 2.83 percent more, according to the data analyzed this Tuesday by the Board in the Government Council.
If this volume is compared with that of the same week in 2023, there are currently 1,609 hm3 more, since the resources stored last year reached 3,511 hm3 (29.34%), but there are 1,719 hm3 less available than the average of the last ten years: 6,839 hm3 (57.15%).
The Guadalquivir Hydrographic Demarcation has 3,715 hm3 of impounded water, which represents 46.26 percent of its total capacity, which is 8,030 hm3, after registering an increase of 254 hm3. In the Andalusian Mediterranean Basins, dammed water has increased to 346 hm3, which represents 30.01 percent. The water impounded in the Guadalete-Barbate district reaches 492 hm3, 29.8 percent, while the Tinto-Odiel-Piedras-Chanza district accumulates 567 hm3, 50.85% percent.
The spokesperson for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, explained that the rains have been “a great relief”, but he recalled that a general assessment cannot be made about the water situation because the distribution of resources is unequal, with a more difficult situation in the eastern part of the community.
The drought committees are going to “relax” the restrictions, increasing the average number of liters per inhabitant, which will give more room to the municipalities to decide how to comply with that obligation.
