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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing