Guadalteba reservoir overtakes La Viñuela to hold the most water in Malaga province

After a few days in which the data from the Junta de Andalucía's Hidrosur network remained unchanged, on Monday 2 June the Guadalteba reservoir north of Malaga city overtook La Viñuela in the Axarquía, which since mid-March had been the reservoir with the most water stored in Malaga province, to become the fullest

At 6pm on Monday the Guadalteba reservoir registered 83.09 million cubic metres, or 54.2% of its capacity, compared to 83.34 a week ago. La Viñuela reservoir has fallen from 83.03 million cubic metres seven days ago to 82.69, which is 50.31% of its capacity. Even so, it is still above the 71 that marks the level of severe shortage.

However, with the water consumption forecast for the coming months, this figure will certainly go down, so the east of Malaga province remains at a serious level of drought, one above the severe level it has been at in recent years. The domestic use limit is 225 litres per person per day and for farming, 12.8 million cubic metres have been granted until 30 September, which means almost two cubic metres per hectare of the Guaro Plan.

The situation of these two reservoirs, which have the largest capacity in Malaga province, is much improved from a year ago when La Viñuela stored 31 million cubic metre which meant that it was at 18.79% of its capacity. Last year barely 180 litres per inhabitant per day were granted for domestic supply and three million cubic metres for emergency irrigation in summer.

In the three reservoirs of the Guadalhorce system as a whole there are 206.13 million cubic metres on Monday, compared to the 60 they had a year ago, which represented just 21.51%. With the heavy rainfall so far this year, the seven reservoirs in Malaga had 375.07 million cubic metres on Monday, so they are at 61.34% of their capacity, compared to 376.82 a week ago, meaning the downward curve of reserves has already begun due to the increase in consumption and temperatures.

In March it was the smaller reservoirs, Casasola in Campanillas, Conde del Guadalhorce and La Concepción in Marbella, that were the first to fill, having to release up to more than 50 million cubic metres into the sea due to the lack of connections between the dams.