“Since April 26 the situation has worsened” despite the rains. With this dramatic phrase, the president of the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE), Dolores Pascual, announced this Thursday that all the data indicates that by the end of this month of May, 50% of the Ebro basin will be in an emergency situation. Pascual has detailed that the current one is one of the most serious situations that the CHE has experienced.
Dolores Pascual, in an appearance prior to the celebration of the first Permanent Commission on Drought, has detailed that “possibly” at the end of May the Gallego and Cinca and Huerva basins will enter into an emergency, thus reaching half of the basin in emergency. “There have been rains in the north, but this does not modify the evolution”, I have detailed. The emergency situation means greater legal coverage for the adoption of “exceptional measures in an exceptional situation”, she explained.
For this reason, the CHE wants to start “a path of containment” of water consumption in the face of a drought that “is going to be long” and in which “certain uses may be dispensable,” Pascual pointed out. “We are not talking about drinking water”, but about hydroelectric exploitation and industrial uses, he pointed out
The president of CHE has assured that for the moment there are no restrictions for mouth consumption, but has warned that we are in a situation of drought that is going to be long and has explained that we come from a 2022 with drought and in which Restrictions were applied although the campaign was managed to be saved thanks to the reserves of the reservoirs. But the absence of rain with “one of the driest springs” has led to a “considerably important” drought.
And although the dramatic situation is not expected to affect mouth water, it has warned that as the situation worsens, “more restrictions will have to be adopted with irrigation users.” The leader explained that as there will be more flow in the rivers, flow meters have been acquired and discharge control is also being applied. She has also pointed out that a surveillance plan will be established for ecological flows. Pascual planned to transfer all this to the permanent commission.
Pascual explained that, after the episode of drought in which we are immersed, a “post-drought evaluation” is planned to analyze how the management has been carried out, what deficiencies there have been and a “global analysis” of all the situation
