Reservoir levels highest for ten years

THE wettest autumn since 1990 has refilled Spain’s reservoirs to more than 50 per cent of their total capacity.

More than 235 litres per square metre or rain fell on the country between September and December to leave reservoirs at their fullest at this time of year since 1996.

Average water levels now stand at 54.7 per cent – 11 per cent more than the same time last year.

Before the official start of autumn on September 21, Spanish reservoirs were at, on average, 38 per cent of their capacity.

However, reservoir levels in the Segura and Júcar river basins in the eastern part of the country are still perilously low (at 11 per cent and 13 per cent respectively).

Reservoirs in the Guadalquivir basin, which serves Bermejales and Iznajar in the Granada province, stand at 38 per cent of their capacity.

Jaime Palop, a water spokesman at the Ministry of the Environment, said there are huge differences between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic basins, in which some reservoirs are close to overflowing.

“The volume of flow of the Tajo River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon, is greater than 3,000 metres per second. The Taibilla River, which supplies reservoirs in Murcia and Alicante, is receiving 6 per cent less water than last year,” he said.

In spite of the record rainfall, Señor Palop warned the drought has yet to finish. “The worse is yet to come. There is little water in the left bank of the Ebro River. There is little snow in the Pyrenees. In Júcar, it is raining more than the usual but the reservoirs are still low,” he added.