Spanish reservoirs at 65% capacity this week

Heads of water supply organisations meet to discuss water availability for the summer.

The heat has really turned on during the last few days, and the question of water availability and supply rears its ugly head yet again as we head for the driest weeks of the year. This year had been "hydrographically dry" which translates as "not a lot of rain has fallen, " so the weekly figures relating to the stocks of water held in Spain's reservoirs are becoming increasingly important.

Today´s figures show that Spains reservoirs are at 65% of their capacity, holding 36,303 cubic hectometres of water, having lost -0.8% of their water reserves during the last week.

Miguel Ángel Ródenas, the president of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura (CHS), has this week met with the new central government delegate in the Mancomunidad de Canales del Taibilla, Adolfo Gallardo, in the first of a series of planned meetings between those who run the two administrative bodies which control the water supply to the Region of Murcia and other parts of south-east Spain.

The two men discussed the availability of water resources for domestic consumption at the start of the summer, and reached the conclusion that there should be no problem in maintaining the supply despite the fact that there has hardly been any rainfall so far this year. This is due to the reserves accumulated over the last two years in the reservoirs of the Segura basin, as well as the transfer of water from the Tajo-Segura supply canal, which can be seen running through the region in places, and the extra reserves which come from the desalination plants in operation. All of these are anticipated to be enough to cover demand over the summer.

Then hopefully it will rain in October.
The CHS and the Taibilla are both dependent on the Ministry for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, and the Taibilla is responsible for the supply to almost all of the Region of Murcia, except Jumilla and Yecla, and the areas of Socovos and Férez in Albacete.