The Prime Minister of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, said he would make Andalusian ports be prepared to handle water tankers.

We’re talking about ships capable of transporting 100,000 cubic metres of water, or if you prefer, 100,000 tonnes of water.

Ports must be able to handle ships of this size with a sufficient storage and distribution capacity should drought conditions require it.

Although Motril Port has not received an official communication from the Junta on this, the port authorities say that their installations are prepared for such traffic, as it already has the necessary infrastructure.

They went on to say that like other commerce in liquid form that come through the port, water can be transported from the ship to bowsers (water-tanker lorries) to be hauled by road to where it is needed, without having to carry out further infrastructural work within the port.

Motril Port already handles ethyl-alcohol and molasses shipment, destined for Motril’s rum factory, for example. They even handled water cargoes for water theme parks, explained the Chairman of the Port Authorities, José García Fuentes.

In the case of Granada, its reservoirs stand at, on average, 20% of their storage capacity, according to the Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir (Regional Water Board).

Aguasvira, which supplies water to 22 municipalities with a total population of 155,000 inhabitants, gets 85% of its water from a spring in Deifontes. Amongst those 22 townships are Atarfe, Maracena, Albolote, Vegas del Genil, Pinos Puente and Santa Fe, as well as the smaller towns of Fuente Vaqueros, Víznar, Alfacar, Íllora, Chauchina, Láchar, Cogollos Vega, Nívar and Valderrubio.

The needs for agriculture is a different matter with the non-irrigated land where wheat crops are grown in the north of the province and the irrigated land in Valle Río Verde, it is a case of farmers keeping their fingers crossed for substantial rain to turn things around.

(News/Noticias: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)