Read at : Google Alert - drought
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/18/spain.drought/
Spain suffers worst drought
From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) — Spain is reeling from its most severe drought in 70 years with the nation’s reservoirs on average just half full, the Environment Ministry reports. Rainfall has been less than half of what’s considered normal for the last six months and reservoir levels were already low after two years in which normal rain levels failed to rebound from the driest 12 months on record — October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005. The worst-hit areas are the Catalonia region — whose capital, Barcelona, is the nation’s second-largest city — and central Spain in the Castilla-La Mancha region near Madrid, according to Antonio Mestre, a climate specialist at the State Meteorological Agency in Madrid.
The Baells reservoir near Barcelona is about 20 percent full, and in some places it appears to be bone dry. A little row boat could this week be seen resting on the sandy dirt bottom of the reservoir.
In a nearby village, Gelida, trucks already bring drinking water every week because the town’s three wells are too dry.
It’s become a political headache for Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who is just starting his second term.
“Despite the difficult drought years,” Zapatero said in the investiture debate in parliament, “there’s been no shortage of drinking water anywhere in the country.”
But Barcelona might run out by October.
The government has decided to quickly build a water pipeline for 60 kilometers (37 miles) along the major AP-7 highway, to pump water in to Barcelona, if necessary by the autumn and depending on reservoir levels at that time. The project would cost 180 million euros ($280 million).
The water would come from the Ebro river and that has sparked protests from the regional governments of Valencia and Murcia, down the Mediterranean coast from Barcelona, that the central government is favoring Barcelona.
Valencia and Murcia leaders this week threatened to take the case to the Constitutional Court, the highest in Spain.
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