Hoteliers on the Costa del Sol demand urgent action in the face of a water shortage in the province

"We are risking our future. The low level of water in the reservoirs can cause us serious supply problems," the president of Aehcos, the hoteliers association on the Costa del Sol has warned.

José Luque's blunt warning on 17 February underscores mounting concern about drought conditions in southern Spain. Aehcos also called on the Junta de Andalucía to get moving on infrastructure work that has been "pending for decades" as well as optimise existing resources and improve the performance of treatment and desalination plants to guarantee the supply of water in the future.

"The low rainfall in recent months anticipates an imminent drought that, if we do not act urgently and decisively, could put the entire tourism sector of the Costa del Sol and the province in check," Luque said. During summer, the population of Malaga doubles putting additional pressure on supplies.

Reservoirs in the province are just at 32.3 per cent of their capacity on average, with cases as worrying as the La Viñuela reservoir which is currently at 14.92 percent, Conde del Guadalhorce at 24 per cent and La Concepción at 39.51 per cent after a winter with hardly any rainfall.

“Infrastructure on the Costa del Sol has become obsolete after decades of service and continuous breakdowns despite the fact that the population on the western coast has quintupled to around 560,000 inhabitants and that in summer it reaches peaks of up to 1.5 million,” Luque added.