Spanish Reservoirs Fall To 40.6% Of Capacity - Reuters

[hatrack]

MADRID - Spain's searing drought has sapped water reserves to record lows for the time of year, threatening supplies to the populous southern regions of Alicante and Murcia, official data showed on Tuesday.

Spain's reservoirs fell by a percentage point in a week to 40.6 percent of capacity, the lowest for the first week of September since readings were first made 10 years ago, the Environment Ministry figures show. Water levels were 31 percent below the decade's average and below the same point in 2005 -- a year declared the worst for rainfall since records began 147 years ago.

Newspaper El Pais reported on Monday that the Tajo river system was now below the point where water could be transferred to the Segura river basin, which supplies two million people in southeastern Spain.

That means the cities of Alicante and Murcia are set to resort to emergency supplies.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/37982/story.htm

[OneBlueSky]

1. with all the drought problems worldwide, could it be that . . .

desalinization plants to make sea water potable is an industry of the future? . . .

just asking (I know next to nothing about the available technology) . . .

[Dogmudgeon]

2. It must be amazing for climatologists ...

... to be able to witness the birth of a new biome, the Great Iberian Desert.

I wonder how far across the Pyrenees this will spread. Up through France, or Eastward into Italy?

--p!