The end of July saw the province’s reservoirs with 40% less stored water than July 2015 and with still half the summer to go. If it doesn’t rain in September…

It’s only a matter of time before an official state of drought is declared in Granada, because the last two years have seen only inadequate rainfall.

So far this year, rainfall is 50% down on the forecast amount based on past averages, leaving the Cubillas and Colmera reservoirs in a critically low state. In fact they are classified as at ‘emergency levels.’

This category is given by the Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir (CHG) (Southern Waterboard) when a reservoir has only one year’s supply left in it. Last year El Pantano de Colmera stood at 46.7% whereas this year it is only at 27.9%.

Closer to the coast, the Clemente and Bermejales reservoirs are on Alert Category, which means irrigation restrictions are enforced. The Pantano de Clemente has use of only 10% of its 117-hectometre capacity, whereas Bermejales has 37% of its full capacity available, having lost 15% in the last year.

Rules, of course is relatively brimming with 63% but that’s because there is no way to get the water out, other than to dump it down the river, which has earnt it the title of “The largest swimming pool in Europe.”

We won’t go into the rest of the pantanos but they are not in a much better state than Bermejales, for example.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)