The hydrographic basin that is most suffering from drought is an unexpected one: Galicia’s

Summer It is taking its toll To the Spanish reservoirs and, despite the fact that the hydrographic basins maintain good health, some of these areas have seen how their reserves have markedly diminish. This has led to repeat an already familiar scenario: consumption restrictions.

First restrictions. Galicia is an example of this. In this community there have been several councilsespecially in those located south of Pontevedra, who have announced restrictions to the use of water. The implemented measures differ as the case reported the Chain ser.

The problem affects more areas of the Northwest, not just Galicia. As reported The newspaper Commercesome municipalities and parishes in Asturias have already announced the implementation of measures of this type to force water savings. These measures, explains the local press, affect only the “great consumption”, such as swimming pools and vehicle washing, similar to the previous ones.

The restrictions have even reached some municipalities in the province of León, especially in the Laciana region, also reported the local press. The town hall of Villablino has been the one who has given the alarm, announcing restrictions on domestic use.

The Galician basins. The data published this week on the Stadium of the Reservoirs confirm a worrying trend in a good part of the basins of the northwest of the Peninsula. This is especially notorious in The basins of the coast of Galicia The only basin north of Júcar below 60 % of its capacity, with its swamps full of 58.5% on average (400 hm³ in total). At the end of May, these reservoirs exceeded 80% of its capacity.

Question of size? There are two factors that explain this rapid descent. The first is a hard summer: the month of June was an extremely warm month in Spain, Also dry (Galicia being one of the driest areas within the Peninsula). Although the month of July was somewhat more wet, most of the rainfall concentrated on the west peninsular.

The second is that we are talking about a small, the sixth smaller sixth basin, with a capacity of 490 hm³, a small fraction of the capacity of neighboring basins such as that of the Miño-Sil (3,030 hm³) or the Duero (7,602 hm³). Lower size implies greater variability, less capacity to absorb Shocks and changes.

Below 2024. Although the situation is not so striking in the rest of Galician basins, there is a detail that all the Northwest basins share (Western Cantabrian, Duero, Galician Basins and Miño-Sil): they all have less water than they had last year by these dates.

The difference is more pronounced in the small basins: the reservoirs of the Galician coast kept 483 hm³ this week, which implies a drop of 17.2%, while those of the Western Cantabrian They have passed from 430 to 357 hm³, almost 17% less.

In contrast, that of the Miño-Sil It went from 2,506 to 2,403 (4.1% less), and The Duero From 5,993 to 5,766 hm³ (3.8% less). On average, the Peninsular basins They have 14.9% more water than last year by these same dates.

Summer remains ahead. There are still almost two months left for the end of the hydrological year. This change of the year is between the months of September and October, at which time autumn precipitations usually change the descendant trend in the reserve of the summer months.

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Image | Vjgalaxy