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After the curve of runoff water entering Malaga reservoirs flattened, on Friday 1 November it became more vertical again, which marked a milestone: the province's reservoir have added 40 cubic hectometres since the rains began. Taking the general rule that one hectometre is the water consumption of 15,000 people in a year, we are talking about reserves for 600,000 people. In other words, this is the water that comes out of the tap in Malaga city during twelve months.
It is important to clarify that these comparisons, in order to make large volume figures more understandable, are based on net and urban consumption. What does this mean? In the management of reservoir water there is a rule that not only takes into account the incoming and impounded water, but also the evaporation (which can exceed 25 hm3 in Malaga province).
We have to subtract evaporation (which can exceed 25 hm3 in our province in a rainy year); agricultural irrigation (now restricted to less than 12 hm3 overall); ecological flows (small quantities to maintain healthy watercourses); the cleaning of the bottom of the sluice gates and intakes; and, in the case of Malaga city, the salt water extracted after treating the water in the Atabal.
It should also be borne in mind that each reservoir has a "dead" dam level, below which the water can no longer be used for supply, although this is a concept to be overcome and for which more and more physical and chemical treatment tools are becoming available.
In any case, the reservoirs have received a volume of rainfall of around 1,000 litres per square metre. Of this, more than 700 have entered where it was most needed: in the Conde de Guadalhorce, Guadalhorce and Guadalteba and, on this occasion, also in Casasola (Almogía), set as a strategic resource by the last regional drought committee. We will have to wait to see how the runoffs behave before we can take stock of the situation.
By six o'clock on Friday evening, the overall volume in storage was on track to exceed 135 cubic hectometres, still far from the 170 that Nelson and Gloria left last March, but a much better figure than last week's figure of 94.
The Guadalhorce reservoirs need to exceed 71.4 hm3 to get out of the severe drought level and they are still a long way off. On Friday, the Guadalteba had 25.3, the Guadalhorce, 17, and the Conde, 23.57. That is 8, 7 and 10 hm3 of water in less than a week respectively.
The aforementioned dam at Casasola, designed to contain the floods of Campanillas, dammed up 11.52. This is almost tripling its level in just five days.
The behaviour of La Concepción, between Marbella and Istán, had improved after discreet rises in previous days. On Friday it was on the way to gaining four hectometres and reaching 29, making it on the verge of abandoning any drought threshold, according to the special drought plan.
La Viñuela in the Axarquía, which is the area most affected by the ongoing drought in Malaga province, has gained 2.5 cubic hectometres and stands at 24.5, also a long way from leaving the gravity threshold. That is more than a year's worth of water for domestic use, in any case. Irrigation will have to continue to be fed by reclaimed water above all, at least for a while.
This Friday was the first day on which the flow of Malaga's rivers returned to normal, outside the alert levels for bursting their banks and floods. But more water than usual is flowing through them, which is also excellent news for those great unknowns that are the wells and aquifers, for which more extensive studies and monitoring are needed, beyond those that have been carried out in Malaga and Cártama to activate the wells of Aljaima, Fahala and Bajo Guadalhorce.
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