The lack of rain in the Balearics is starting to cause concern especially as the Palma Met Office said that there will no rain on the islands for at least the next two weeks. There are fears that the islands may been forced to introduce restrictions like other regions of Spain.
In Catalonia (capital Barcelona) people will be banned from washing their cars and filling up empty swimming pools under measures announced today to alleviate the region's worst drought on record.
The measures, which will come into force on Friday, will affect around six million people in 200 villages, towns and cities, including Spain's second largest city Barcelona. They were adopted after reservoirs fell close to 16% of their capacity.
The mainland is its driest in 1,200 years, a 2022 study showed, forcing officials to consider bringing in water by ship to Barcelona, a measure adopted in 2008 when reservoir levels were close to 20% and fewer desalination plants were operating.
The local government wants residents to cut their water usage by 5% and farmers by up to 80%. Under a first set of measures, which could be toughened up if the situation does not improve, permitted water usage will be reduced to 200 litres from 210 litres per person a day.
Some water restrictions have been introduced in the Balearics over recent years.
3 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
HanserQuite so. Everyone has been saying how mild January has been and how dry this winter is. It’s alarming to read in this article that the Govt is only now starting to worry. It’s going to be a tough summer unless all this climate change going on gives us a washout of a summer!
Marvin Le MartianThe island is still superficially green but this is thanks to the nightly dew that is keeping the ground surface moist. Underneath, the soil is bone dry and, when the hotter weather returns, the impact could be dramatic. Local people know how serious the situation already is.
We hiked along Gorg Blau last weekend and it was astonishingly low. It’ll take biblical rain for quite some time for it and Cuber to get anywhere near a reasonable capacity to cope with the coming summer. That looks unlikely so I hope there are concrete plans in place to cut water use and get as much supply in as possible.