Andalusian reservoirs continue to increase their water reserves after the latest rains, reaching 28.3% of their capacity, just one point below the level reached on the same date in 2023. Although the drought continues to be a structural problem and a question on which different policies pivot, the truth is that the storms that have swept the community in the last month have given the region a break.
Despite this good data (in summer the water in the swamps barely touched 20%), the truth is that in 2024 there will be half as much water accumulated as 10 years ago, when the reservoirs were at 55.03%.
According to data provided by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco), Andalusian reservoirs gain water for another week. At 28.3% of their capacity, the swamps are made up after the rains of the storm ‘Mónica’ with 288 cubic hectometers more, although they are 1.2 percentage points below the level of the same week in 2023.
Thus, the Guadalquivir basin increases to 28.5% with a total of 2,291 cubic hectometers, while that of the Andalusian Mediterranean Basin remains at 21.3 percent, with a total of 250 hm3.
The Tinto, Odiel and Piedras reservoirs in Huelva have gained water up to 179 hm3, with their reserve at 78.2 percent of their capacity and the same is true of the Guadalete-Barbate reservoirs in Cádiz, which have also gained water compared to the last week, with 333 hm3, and standing at 20.2 percent.
For its part, the Andalusian Government wanted to ask Andalusians for “responsibility” in the use of water and for citizens not to be carried away “by a false illusion” after the recent rains, since the dammed resources remain “absolutely insufficient.” “said the spokesperson and advisor for Sustainability, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, who pointed out that there are still swamps that do not even reach a third on average, with some below 15 percent of their capacity.
At the national level, the Spanish water reserve is at 56.8% of its total capacity and the reservoirs currently store 31,844 cubic hectometers (hm3) of water, increasing in the last week by 1,171 cubic hectometers (2.1% of the capacity current total of reservoirs).
