Andalucía region's reservoirs remain in a critical situation and these are the current levels

The reservoirs in Andalucía are still in a critical situation despite the showers of the last few weeks and remain at only 19.3 per cent of their capacity. The rains have taken a pause in an autumn that started with rainfall, although scarcely enough to increase the water reserves.

In the last week the Andalusian reservoirs have only increased their volume of water by three cubic hectometres to 2,139 cubic hectometres in storage. This level is 2.3 percentage points lower than at this time last year, when they contained 2,398 cubic hectometres and the reservoirs were at 21.6 percent of their capacity.

The rain in Spain this autumn has been more noticeable in the northern half of the mainland and has left hardly any improvement in the reservoir levels in the south, which are still at historic lows despite this rainfall. The northernmost river basins have more than 50 per cent of their capacity, a difference of more than 30 per cent with those of Andalucía.

The latest rains have led to a slight rise in the reservoirs of the Guadalquivir basin, a tenth more of a percentage point to 18.8 per cent with a total of 1,508 cubic hectometres, while that of the Andalusian Mediterranean basin is down four tenths to 21.1 per cent, with a total of 248 cubic hectometres.

These are the two main reservoir systems in the Andalucía region. The others are the Tinto, Odiel and Piedras in Huelva, and the Guadalete-Barbate in Cadiz. The reservoirs in Huelva lost one cubic hectometre to 136, with their reserve at 59.4 per cent of their capacity, and those in Cadiz lost one cubic hectometre compared to last week, with 247 hm3, and standing at 15 per cent.

At the national level, the Spanish water reserve is at 43.6 per cent of its total capacity and the reservoirs currently store 24,414 cubic hectometres of water, increasing in the last week by 1,035 cubic hectometres, 1.8 per cent of the current total capacity of the reservoirs.