Reservoirs at lowest levels for 22 years at just a third full
Friday, November 10, 2017 @ 5:28 PM
RESERVOIRS in Spain are at their lowest levels in 22 years due to a lack of rainfall in recent years, sitting on average at just over a third full.
Following the driest October so far this century, the total amount of water held in reservoirs at present is 20,920 cubic hectometres, which translates to 37.31% of total capacity at the end of a consistent seven months of dropping levels – the lowest since the first week in November 1994, when they fell to 35.13%, and the most sparse in the 22 years since natural water supplies plummeted to historic lows – reaching 24.81% in November 1995.
The average rainfall for October was 26 litres per square metre – 2.6 centimetres, or about an inch – barely a third of the typical amount seen in what used to be the wettest month of the year, especially in the Mediterranean.
A drought that has been ongoing since around 2013, the last year has been the eighth-worst in 31 years, according to green campaigners Ecologists in Action.
Falling water reserves have been ongoing since 2015 in some rivers, such as the Duero in Castilla y León – which becomes the Douro when it reaches Portugal – the Segura in the southern Alicante-Murcia area, and the Júcar in the province of Valencia and north of Alicante.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com