The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, announced last week that the Government Council will approve at its meeting today, December 5, “a new strategy against drought with short-term emergency measures and actions”. At the same time, he has announced that “connection outlets with the nearest Drinking Water Treatment Stations will be installed in the Andalusian ports to be able to bring ships loaded with up to 100,000 cubic metres of water, in case the situation requires it.”
In his speech, he stressed that “the countryside cannot survive without water”, nor can tourism be “sustained” like this, nor can industry “grow without water”.
The president lamented that at this point in the year “the rain forecasts in the autumn have not been met,” and the community’s reservoirs are below 20% of their capacity, and about 3, 5 million people suffer some type of restriction in Andalusia.
Along these lines, he has indicated that there are two problems that currently “keep me up at night”, and one of them is the lack of water as a result of the drought – the other is the “bottleneck” to access water.
“It causes immense pain to hear older farmers and ranchers say that they have never experienced such a long and hard drought situation,” commented Moreno, who recalled that in his 2019 investiture speech he expressed that “we needed undertake essential infrastructure to reduce the community’s water deficit.
Since then, as the president has highlighted, the Board has worked “with foresight and planning”, and has carried out “more than 1,000 actions in the area of water”, and is “assisting the State in 76”.
In addition, the Board is executing the Works Plan against Drought, with “4 billion euro of investment until 2027”, and has approved three drought decrees, according to the president, who has subsequently announced that, “at the beginning of next year”, the Andalusian Government will approve a fourth drought decree “to continue fighting against such a complicated situation”.
Furthermore, “to be prepared if the rains continue not to arrive”, the Government Council “will approve a new strategy against drought with short-term emergency measures and actions if the situation becomes complicated”, aimed “mainly at supply of the population in extreme situations”.
Thus, Moreno has announced the installation of portable desalination plants in Marbella and the Axarquía of Malaga, as well as that they will “promote works on purification plants to implement tertiary cycles and obtain completely clean water”, to “recover and activate wells and boreholes that already exist, but are disused”, and explained that in the La Viñuela and Guadarranque reservoirs “floating intakes will be installed that will allow us to extract water even at low storage levels.”
“And in the Andalusian ports we are going to install connection points with the closest Drinking Water Treatment Stations to be able to bring ships loaded with up to 100,000 cubic metres of water, in case the situation requires it,” Juanma Moreno has also warned that “we do not resign ourselves and we work in the face of the worst possible scenario”, which he has said he hopes will not be reached.
Moreno has warned that “every week and month that passes we have fewer cubic hectometres in each reserve” of water in Andalusia, so the situation is “extreme” and “will limit our economic growth, development and progress in an extraordinary way.” He added to emphasise that “it is not a topic for laughter or frivolity, but for a sense of responsibility.”
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