Water is being rationed in half of Spain to save it for domestic use, as parts of the country suffer the worst drought for 60 years.
Weeks before the tourist season starts, swimming pools are empty, city fountains are turned off and golf courses have been ordered to reduce watering.
Some reservoirs in the south-east are more than three-quarters empty. With no fresh rain expected in the affected areas until the autumn, authorities have decided they must protect domestic supplies through the busy summer season.
Eastern Spain is the worst hit, with the north-eastern province of Huesca deciding not to fill public swimming pools this summer and public parks and golf courses throughout Catalonia ordered to ration use of non-recycled water.
Barcelona has turned off its public fountains for most of the day as the authorities impose restrictions.
The Costa Brava in the north-east and the region south of Alicante big tourist centers, are among the worst-affected areas. Public showers on the south-eastern beaches of Murcia have been shut off.
Spain attracts more than 50 million foreign visitors a year, including 14 million Britons, most of whom will arrive over the next four months.
In 27 towns along the east coast near Alicante a stable population of 150,000 is pushed up to 1.1 million in August.
Water pressure has been reduced in some areas and 95 percent of towns in Catalonia, which is experiencing its worst drought since 1945, have imposed restrictions. A handful of villages in the interior of Catalonia and Huesca are having to distribute water in jerry cans.
Crops in some areas are being left to wither as irrigation, which accounts for three-quarters of Spain's water, is heavily restricted to save water for domestic use. Farmers near the southeastern city of Elche say they have been told they can only water their crops for eight minutes a day. But authorities say there is just enough domestic water available to get through the summer.
"Problems of supply may get to households at the end of September," El Pais newspaper warned in an editorial.
But little rain is expected before then. And there are concerns about next summer.
Spain's Socialist-dominated parliament last week cancelled plans by the previous People's party government to divert water from northern rivers such as the Ebro to the parched south-east.
"Now everybody loses. The only winner is the Mediterranean Sea ... which is where all our left-over water will go," complained Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the People's party.
Spain will, instead, build desalination plants along the east coast to turn salt water into fresh water.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
Ugandan wildlife authorities have reintroduced rhinos into a remote protected area where they were once poached into extinction, an event seen by conservationists as a milestone in efforts to support the recovery of a species threatened by poaching. On Tuesday, two southern white rhinos from a private ranch in the East African country were reintroduced into Kidepo Valley National Park in the country’s northeast. Two more rhinos in metallic crates arrived on Thursday. There have been no rhinos in the park since 1983, the result of poaching. However, a private ranch in central Uganda — the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary — has been
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
RSS