That the Spanish water management system is unsustainable is a more palpable reality. The intensification of extreme drought periods due to climate change and the overexploitation of water affect the availability of water, even the country’s water and food safety.
While the restrictions on domestic water consumption in many municipalities begin to be usual as soon as a little heat makes, the land is cracked and nature says enough! And he does it with a You are as significant as the desiccation of two iconic national parks: The Tables of Daimiel and Doñana.
Meanwhile they suffer Danas of terrible results like the one suffered by Valenciaheat waves that intensify the severity of forest fires and historical droughts take the country to the edge of an unprecedented water crisis that cyclically leaving rivers, wetlands, aquifers and reserves of the under minimum swamps.
What is happening with water in Spain?
Water is essential for life, an increasingly scarce good and we don’t take care of it. We let the “liquid gold” where life arose escapes in our hands, in the pipelines of the irrigation pumped by illegal wells or in many pools and golf courses without being aware of the consequences for our future.
The desert advances and more than 9 million hectares are already cataloged as areas with High or very high risk of desertification in our territory. mainly in the southern third and the two archipelagos.
A reduction in rains is expected, especially in the Atlantic basins, that of the Guadalquivir and the peninsular south, and an increase in temperatures of up to 2 degrees in 2040. If no measures are taken, in 2050 three quarters of the Spanish population could suffer an extreme shortage of water and cities such as Seville, Granada, Córdoba or Murcia would be the most affected in Europe.
The main causes of the desertification of Spain are: intensification of the extreme periods of drought due to climate change and global warming, The overexploitation of aquifers, the unsustainable growth of irrigation, the abandonment of land and the degradation of the soil that affect its fertility and ability to retain moisture.
Meteorological and hydrological drought
There are two types of droughts: the meteorological, which occurs when there is a shortage of rainfall and It is a usual climate phenomenon in Spain, recurring and associated with our Mediterranean climate. And the hydrological drought, which depends on the use we make of water and occurs when circulating water in rivers, stored in reservoirs or aquifer reserves are below normal.
Due to climate change, there are more and more days with temperatures greater than 40 degreessharpening the weather droughts that are increasingly long and frequent, which causes an increase in evapotranspiration on the surface of water, soil, vegetation and crops.
Can you do something?
To prevent Spain from becoming a desert, the competent authorities should make a deep change Towards a new water management model in our country, in which demand adjusts to lower water resources available for climate change.
The availability of fresh water is increasingly restricted because it is not taken care of, They allow very high episodes of pollution, the plundering of water pockets and malicious management of this resource. At this rhythm, in a few years there will be no where to get water for crops, and much less to satisfy the thirst of living beings that inhabit the territory, humans included.