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Historic drought sees Spaniards pray for rain

Drought is so severe in parts of Spain that thousands of people are invoking the heavens desperate for rain.

Published: 3 May 2023 09:11 CEST

Historic drought sees Spaniards pray for rain

Penitents bear a float with a statue of Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, also known as the "Abuelo de Jaen" during a procession through the streets of the city to make the rain fall in Jaén, on May 1, 2023. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

On Monday, parishioners in the southern city of Jaen held a procession carrying aloft a statute of Christ called “El Abuelo” to pray for rain for the first time since 1949.

Thousands attended the procession as experts say parts of Spain are the driest in a thousand years, with drought depleting reservoirs to half their normal capacity, figures show.

“We are in the midst of a persistent drought and the aim of this procession is to invoke the Lord to help us and save us,” Ricardo Cobos, a member of the “El Abuelo” brotherhood, told AFP.

READ ALSO: How Catholic are people in Spain nowadays?

On April 25, Spain asked the European Union for emergency funds to help the country’s farmers grapple with a severe drought threatening crops.

Two days later, mainland Spain recorded its hottest temperature ever for April, hitting 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Cordoba, preliminary data showed.

Water reservoirs are at half their capacity nationally and the COAG farmers’ union says 60 percent of farmland is “suffocating” from lack of rainfall.

Spain is the world’s biggest exporter of olive oil and a key source of Europe’s fruit and vegetables.

People attend the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno procession through the streets of Jaén. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

“We are very dependent on olive trees and the cultivation of oil, therefore when the land stops receiving water it is an economic catastrophe,” said Cobos.

Last year, Spain experienced its hottest year since records began, with UN figures suggesting nearly 75 percent of its land is susceptible to desertification due to climate change.

Back in Jaén, eyes are on the sky. “I have come to see the Lord and I have great faith that he will give us water”, said Antonia Contreras, who came to follow the procession from a neighbouring town.

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'Mutant cockroaches': Why Spain's rising temperatures make them multiply

They’re a part of Spanish summers that everyone dreads. No, not the blistering heat or beaches and beauty spots teeming with tourists, but the cockroaches coming out of hibernation.

If you haven’t lived in a warm climate before, this can come as a bit of a shock. This is especially true if you come across some of the huge, brown cockroaches scurrying across the street or, even worse, in your house.

But now climate and pest control experts warn that climate change could make the problem even worse by causing a genetic mutation and creating what the Spanish press have dubbed ‘mutant cockroaches’ (cucarachas mutantes) that are growing immune to traditional pesticides.

READ ALSO: What to do about insects and other pests in your home in Spain?

The mutation, experts fear, combined with longer breeding seasons and increased birth rates, could pose a public health risk.

Rising temperatures are causing the ‘blond’ or Germanic cockroach (blattella germanica) to genetically mutate.

“Their metabolic cycle is accelerated” by the heat and they are increasingly immune to insecticides, Jorge Galván, director general of the National Association of Environmental Health Companies (Anecpla), told Spanish news outlet 20minutos.

Climate change has changed Spain from “subtropical to a tropical climate,” Galván says.

“The warm seasons are getting longer and the cold ones are getting hotter.” This in turn means that cockroaches appear “a couple of months earlier” and stay out later into the year than they previously would.

This means a longer breeding season, and therefore a larger number of cockroaches.

The effects of these high temperatures combined with longer breeding seasons substantially increases “the probability of a genetic alteration.” Already, pest control experts have seen that cockroaches are becoming immune to traditional pesticides and can ingest chemicals previously used to kill them, something that will, Galván fears, contribute to problems not only of pest control “but of public health.”

READ ALSO: What venomous species are there in Spain?

Carlos Pradera, technical manager of the pest control company Anticimex, explained that “the more we treat them, the more they withstand the pressure.”

For this reason, Pradera says, experts are investigating other “preventive measures” to try and combat the genetic changes, looking at other “other methodologies based on traps and vacuums.”

Cockroaches are becoming increasingly common in homes and bars and restaurants in Spain, experts warn. Anticimex carried out almost 40 percent more pest control incidents in 2023 than the previous year, a record, according to data provided to EL PERIÓDICO.

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