Since the 1st of October farmers have not been able to draw from the La Viñuela Reservoir to irrigate there land and now they face a dry spring and summer ahead. Add to this that there are fourteen municipalities within the Axarquía that also draw from this reservoir.

At the time of writing, La Viñuela stood at just 10.5% of its capacity, which is equivalent to 17.3 cubic hectometers. This time last year it contained 25.7 cubic hectometers.

However, it appears that calls for water conservation and its rational use are starting to sink in amongst the areas 220,000 inhabitants that use water from the reservoir, according to the water utility company, Axaragua: during this February the quantity of water consumed in those 14 municipalities dropped by 5.6% with respect to the previous February. The trouble is that January figures actually grew when compared to the same period last years, so let’s hope that the February trend continues.

The average consumption per person is slightly above the 180 litres a day that the Junta de Andalucía set as an objective when they issued the drought decree. Of course, it varies from town to town so that Vélez-Málaga went down 10,3% while Torrox went up 22,4% in consumption.

The Junta and the water utility company are calling for calm because there is enough water for the next few months even if it doesn’t rain before summer thanks to water transfers from the city of Málaga and Río Chíllar, which came on line last November.

(News: Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Andalucia)