Spain, Portugal struggle with extreme drought
MADRID: Spain and Portugal are warn that prolonged dry spells will become more frequent.
percent of Portugal is enduring what
- enced a drought like this in the a climatologist with the weather Agence France-Presse.
considerably less rain during the last three years than it normally does.
Jose Ramon Gonzalez, a small rancher in Spain’s normally rainy northwestern region of Galicia.
Because of scarcity of grass, Gonzalez was forced to spend thousands of euros to buy fodder for his cattle in July, four months earlier than normal.
-
About 1.38 million hectares (3.4 drought or frost in Spain as of the farming insurance agency Agroseguro.
million euros ($236 million) in compensation this year.
“You feel helpless like when you are sick, you can’t do anything. This sickness is called drought,” said in Spain’s central Castilla-La Mancha region, whose endless plain is depicted in “Don Quixote,” the fa
plunged 70 percent from last year
The situation is just as dire for farmers across the border in neighbouring Portugal.
“All crops are suffering from this lack of water in our region, from - dent of the association of farmers on Portalegre in central Portugal.
people this year in Portugal and
Water conflicts
less than 40 percent of their storage capacity.
This weekend about a hundred fire trucks began transporting water from one dam in northern Portugal to another that is running dry and supplies water to Viseu, a city of around 100,000 residents.
into the Atlantic near Lisbon, were as of Monday at just 39.3 percent of their capacity.
- rigate crops in southeastern Spain.
Spain’s largest power company, production plunge 58 percent dur compared to the same period last year, pushing up electricity prices.
The drought is also fuelling use of water.
- during the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco to siphon off
- port” this aqueduct, said Antonio Luengo, head of the agency that regulates water in Spain’s CastillaLa Mancha region.
in southeastern Spain and now water from the Mediterranean must be desalinated to support these crops, he said.
Climate risks
Experts warn that droughts are likely to become more frequent
“Spain has since 1980 shown signs of climate change, which - mate institute.
The country’s climate “tends - acteristics. Higher temperatures and rarer and more intense rains. will increase in the coming decades,” he added.
badly”, said Julio Barea, spokesman for the Spanish branch of Greenpeace.
He cited as examples the use of water to irrigate trees that do not normally need much water, such crops that are not suited to Spain’s Mediterranean climate.