Good news for the Costa del Sol with no water shortage for summer tourist season after heavy rain in province

There will be no shortage of water on Spain's Costa del Sol for the forthcoming tourist season, thanks to the recent rain. On 13 March, before the rain began, La Concepción reservoir only held 23 cubic hectometres but now it contains 38.5 Hm3, and at midday today (Wednesday) it was 62 per cent full.

Not only that – the level will continue to rise because the Aemet weather centre says there is plenty more rain to come, especially in the west of Malaga province, which was on amber alert all morning, and the rivers are continuing to flow into La Concepción.

Although nothing has been said officially by the Junta de Andalucía’s Ministry of Agriculture and Sustainable Development, it is possible that the drought decree which currently affects the whole of the Costa del Sol, will be lifted in the near future and the planned restrictions on the use of water will not be applied.

“We’re going to be cautious; we’re going to wait until April when the Drought Committee meets again to evaluate the situation and update the data,” says Fernando Fernández Tapia-Ruano, the delegate for Agriculture and Sustainable Development. “If La Concepción contains plenty of water the state of drought emergency will not apply, but nothing has been decided yet”.

The Special Drought Plan stated that La Concepción would come out of the state of emergency if it contained more than 31 Hm3 in March/April, and following the recent rain that is the case at present. The state of alert can be lifted once the reservoir holds more than 42 Hm3, which it may do very soon if the rivers continue to flow into it at the present rate. Between that level and 50 Hm3 it would be in a state of pre-alert, and once it holds more than 50 Hm3 things can be considered normal.