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ENVIRONMENT

‘Spain needs to change its ways’: Scientists warn over worsening drought

Jorge Olcina, a geographer and director of the University of Alicante’s Climatology Laboratory, has warned that climate change is increasing the intensity of drought and Spain will have to change the way it manages water.

Published: 21 February 2022 16:31 CET
'Spain needs to change its ways': Scientists warn over worsening drought
This photograph taken on February 10, 2022 shows an aerial view of the monastery of San Salvador de la Vedella, now accessible by foot due to the low water level whereas in recent years the only access was by boat, in Cercs, Catalonia. Photo by Aitor De ITURRIA / AFP

Spain and Portugal are being hit with extreme drought this winter due to the lack of rain in January, which was the second driest January since 2000 on the Iberian Peninsula, according to the meteorological agencies of the two countries.

The coming months will be crucial when it comes to establishing the drought’s medium and long-term evolution. “If the rain situation does not change radically in March and April, all the hydrographic basins will be hit by drought, and water restrictions will have to begin to be applied to irrigation,” Olcina told Información.

He also said national and regional governments are not doing enough to highlight the importance of the situation. They “must change the narrative around water and explain it to citizens,” he said. “It must be planned from the sustainable management of demand, and not from the continued idea of supply, which has been the traditional paradigm developed in our country.”

“We have to be aware that new [water] transfers in Spain will no longer be possible, and that maintaining existing ones, in some cases, is going to be complicated due to climate change.”

So far 2022 is the second driest year in the past century, something that is worrying farmers across the country.

The regions in Spain that are being worst affected by the drought are the south of the Iberian Peninsula, such as the Guadalquivir river, the Mediterranean and Atlantic basins in Andalucía, the Guadiana river on the Spain-Portugal border, the Miño river and the basins of Catalonia.

Recently the old town of Aceredo in Galicia’s province of Ourense remerged from a reservoir. The village was deliberately flooded and submerged underwater in 1992, but every few years this eerie pueblo reappears when water levels are low.

Spain’s water reservoirs are currently only at 44 percent capacity.

When asked whether we could expect restrictions in water consumption in Spain this summer, Olcina said it was unlikely except in towns that have a poorly designed drinking water management system – those that don’t have storage tanks to withstand 3 or 4 months without rain. 

This occurs especially in towns in the interior of the country that depend on rainwater that reacher rivers of aquifers. Restrictions in water consumption are already being announced in parts of Andalucía and “the city of Ávila is beginning to be concerned with the situation,” Olcina said.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s not normal’ – How dozens of villages in Spain struggle for drinking water

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ENVIRONMENT

Spain’s endangered Iberian lynx population doubles in three years

The number of endangered Iberian lynx in the wild in Spain and Portugal has nearly doubled since 2020 to surpass 2,000 last year, the Spanish government said Friday.

Published: 17 May 2024 13:01 CEST
Spain's endangered Iberian lynx population doubles in three years

A total of 722 lynx were born in 2023 bringing their total number in the two countries to 2,021, a record high since monitoring of the species began and up from 1,111 just three years earlier, Spain’s environment ministry said in a statement.

This rise “allows us to continue to be optimistic about the reduction of the risk of extinction of the Iberian lynx,” it added.

Known for its pointy ears, long legs and leopard-like spotted fur, the species was on the brink of extinction just two decades ago due to poaching, road accidents and encroachment on their habitat by urban development, as well as a dramatic decline due to disease in wild rabbits numbers, the lynx’s main prey.

When the first census of the spotted nocturnal cat was carried out in 2002, there were fewer than 100 specimens in the Iberian Peninsula.

The ministry party attributed the boom in lynx numbers to the success of a captive breeding and reintroduction programme launched in 2011. Since then, 372 lynx born in captivity have been released into the wild.

“The recovery of the Iberian lynx population in Spain and Portugal constitutes one of the best examples of conservation actions for endangered species in the world,” it said.

The ministry said the Iberian lynx population has continued to rise since 2015, when the International Union for Conservation of Nature downgraded the threat level to “endangered” from “critically endangered — its highest category before extinction in the wild.

Most Iberian lynx can be found in the Donana national park and Sierra Morena mountains in the southwestern region of Andalusia, but the conservation programme has reintroduced captive-bred animals to the Spanish regions of Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia, as well as Portugal.

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