Parched Spain Plans to Ship Water to Coastal Areas

Spanish authorities are drawing up emergency plans to ship water around the country's parched coastal areas in tanker boats amid warnings that the current record-breaking drought may last up to six years.

Most droughts over the past six decades have lasted between four and six years, an environment ministry report said last week.

With rainfall at record-breaking lows earlier this year, and no sign of a let-up for the parched central, southern and eastern zones of the country, orders have now been issued to draw up plans on the assumption that this drought, too, will last several years.

The water authority for the south-eastern Segura basin, the source of domestic water for a busy and booming stretch of coastline from Alicante to Aguilas, has said that if necessary it will hire sea-going tankers to bring water in. "It has been done before in Spain, with the Balearic islands shipping water in 1995," a Segura basin water authority spokesman said yesterday.

The Segura is the area most affected by the drought, with reservoir levels down to just 12% and fast-growing tourist resorts increasing demand for water.

It is also home to some of the dozens of new golf course-based tourist developments that are springing up around Spain's coasts.

Environmentalists say that each golf course uses the water resources of a town of between 10,000 and 16,000 people.

Regional authorities on the Costa del Sol have announced that a major reservoir there may dry up by November and have said they will be pumping water into the area from other parts of Andalucia.

"One of the conditions is that it not be used for watering golf courses," said Andalucia's environment chief, Fuensanta Coves.

Environment ministry sources said yesterday that Spaniards needed to understand that droughts were a natural phenomenon on the Iberian peninsula and that the important thing was to plan properly. "This is a Mediterranean climate and droughts are something we have to accept. We have to recognise that this is a country that does not have a lot of water and that supplies are not endless," a ministry source explained.

Spain's meteorological institute has warned that, while some rain is expected in the autumn, there may be less than normal. Environment minister Cristina Narbona has said that things are unlikely to improve much over the next three months. "It will be hard, even with normal rainfall, to refill reservoirs. We have to be careful," she said.