Junta's head warns water restrictions could be enforced if no rain falls by September

Water restrictions could be enforced in Andalucia unless rain ralls and reservoir levels rise between now and September.

President of the Junta de Andalucía Juanma Moreno warned on Wednesday, 3 May in Cordoba that "if it did not rain" between now and September in the Mediterranean basins which cover "27% of Andalusian territory", the regional administration, would have to take action.

It could involve limitations on water use such as irrigation, street washing, filling swimming pools and watering gardens.

Moreno visited said he hoped that "this will not happen" and assured that "human consumption in large cities is guaranteed for at least a year or a year and a half, but consumption in the agricultural and livestock sectors is very complicated".

"We are going to wait, to see if we are lucky and in the second half of May there is some kind of rainfall and if by the end of September we have not had any rainfall in the area of our responsibilities, which are the Mediterranean basins, we will begin to take decisions and, obviously, the Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir (CHG), which depends on the Spanish Government, will also have to take its decisions," he said.

Moreno also said the drought was causing a hit in the economy, especially the primary sector, the agro-industrial sector including livestock farming and agriculture.

"It is a tremendously intense drought because we have had four very bad years, but this year is really bad, with very high temperatures, 12 to 13 degrees above what is supposedly normal, and then with practically zero rainfall, as we have seen in traditionally rainy months, such as April," Moreno said.

The only solution right now was to issue drought decrees, which the Andalusian government has done three times already, he added. Moreno also said 300 million euros had been allocated to emergency works and called on the national government to help and invest in water infrastructures for the future.

"This would be the way so that as soon as possible we can, at least urgently, solve the problems we are having in the north of the province of Cordoba or in other regions of Andalucía, where there is no water suitable for consumption and, above all, problems for our farmers and livestock farmers, who are probably experiencing the worst situation in recent decades," Moreno said.