Spain to spend €12 billion to help combat effects of drought
Spain is to invest almost €12 billion in order to tackle the problems associated with drought, Environment Minister Teresa Ribera announced on Tuesday.
The investment will be spent between now and 2027 in order to promote desalination plants and improve water efficiency by upgrading pipelines and regulating infrastructure.
The government will also spend a further three billion from Perte (the strategic project for economic recovery and transformation) in order to manage water resources through the use of new technologies and big data.
"We require structural responses and constant investment," Ribera explained during the press conference.
Despite the recent floods in Madrid, 14.6 percent of the national territory is now in an emergency due to water scarcity and 27.4 percent is on alert, which adds up to a total of 42 percent, according to a report presented on Tuesday, September 12th to the Council of Ministers.
The average precipitation over the past year is 17.1 percent below normal.
The current reserve of the reservoirs is now at 37 percent of the total capacity with 20,734 cubic hectometers accumulated.
The areas most affected by the drought currently are the Guadalete-Barbate reservoir (16.5 percent), the Guadalquivir basin (19.1 percent), the internal basins of Catalonia (23.3 percent) and the Andalusian Mediterranean basin (25.1 percent).
Agriculture
The severe drought is also affecting Spain's agricultural industry. Experts predict that cereal harvests will fall by up to 40 percent this autumn, compared to last year.
The production of barley has been reduced by 39 percent and that of wheat by 36 percent, while corn has decreased by 20 percent, due to the lack of water available for irrigation.
To combat the effects of this the government estimates that Spain will need to import around 20 million tons of cereals to satisfy demand, both from consumers and for the manufacture of animal feed.
The drought has also directly affected sunflower oil yields and fruit trees, meaning both of these products may also be lacking this autumn.
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The investment will be spent between now and 2027 in order to promote desalination plants and improve water efficiency by upgrading pipelines and regulating infrastructure.
The government will also spend a further three billion from Perte (the strategic project for economic recovery and transformation) in order to manage water resources through the use of new technologies and big data.
"We require structural responses and constant investment," Ribera explained during the press conference.
Despite the recent floods in Madrid, 14.6 percent of the national territory is now in an emergency due to water scarcity and 27.4 percent is on alert, which adds up to a total of 42 percent, according to a report presented on Tuesday, September 12th to the Council of Ministers.
The average precipitation over the past year is 17.1 percent below normal.
The current reserve of the reservoirs is now at 37 percent of the total capacity with 20,734 cubic hectometers accumulated.
The areas most affected by the drought currently are the Guadalete-Barbate reservoir (16.5 percent), the Guadalquivir basin (19.1 percent), the internal basins of Catalonia (23.3 percent) and the Andalusian Mediterranean basin (25.1 percent).
Agriculture
The severe drought is also affecting Spain's agricultural industry. Experts predict that cereal harvests will fall by up to 40 percent this autumn, compared to last year.
The production of barley has been reduced by 39 percent and that of wheat by 36 percent, while corn has decreased by 20 percent, due to the lack of water available for irrigation.
To combat the effects of this the government estimates that Spain will need to import around 20 million tons of cereals to satisfy demand, both from consumers and for the manufacture of animal feed.
The drought has also directly affected sunflower oil yields and fruit trees, meaning both of these products may also be lacking this autumn.
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