The droughts arrive and pass by leaving behind greater or lower ravages. Also the drought that chronicly ravages Spain will have more or less intense moments, but perhaps the normality that is behind it is not like the previous one. The reason is the existence of a tendency towards long -term aridity, Aridification of the territory.
A good part of the Peninsula is classified based on its aridity index as semi -arid areas, “one step” of this classification as a arid zone, according to the data of the EEENS itself. Where this process is going to advance. It is one of the points that have transcended ““B of the Higher Council for Scientific Research of the CSIC.
Where do we come from. Almería, Murcia and the Canary Islands archipelago have traditionally been the areas where Spanish arid areas were concentrated. It is therefore not striking that the two provinces of the southeast peninsular are where the aridification process has had greater impact. At least until now.
And it is that a good part of the Peninsula is classified based on its aridity index as semi -arid areas, “one step” of this classification as a arid zone, according to the data of the EENS itself.
Potential for desertification. According to The Ministry for Ecological Transitionthe extension of these arid and semi -arid areas, to which the dry subhummedas should be added, delimits the area where the risk of desertification It must be seriously considered.
According to the most recent data in the Ministry, areas with high or very high desertification risk, although they are distributed throughout the country, cover a more significant portion of the provinces of the Levant and the Southeast peninsular (In addition to the Canary Islands). The “very high” risk areas are particularly notable in provinces such as Almería, Murcia, Alicante, Granada and even Cuenca, and slightly less noticeable in some of the border provinces.
Risk of desertification in Spain. Ministry for ecological transition and demographic challenge.
A long -term trend. There are numerous factors that help explain why we are facing this situation. The first is the lack of rains. Beyond the current drought, the last decades have been relatively dry in Spain. Climate change is expected to aggravate this, with less rainfall on average, but more concentrated.
Precedents. 2023 and 2024 were not only anomally dry: also especially warm. The increase in temperatures implies an increase in the evaporation of the water that comes to us, both from rivers and swamps and from the same soil: in spring this year the moisture of the soil was of about 0% In most of the Peninsula.
Finally, water use should be mentioned. Population growth, tourism and an agriculture increasingly dependent on irrigation bring each time More pressure on reservoirs and aquifers. The latter In a limit situation.
No solution to sight The combination of all these factors makes the solution difficult. Spain has a vast network of desalination plant, but the energy and ecological limitations they present prevent (at least for now) a use at sufficient scale. An example of this is the situation in Catalonia, where drought has not been able to be stopped with desalists working 100% of their abilities.
Greater efficiency in water use could help complement these new sources, but here the limitations are also important: approximately three quarters of the water consumed in Spain are used by the agriculture and livestock sector according to Aquae data. The precarious situation of the sector and the recent protests do not invite to think that there is a margin of action on this front.
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Image | Andrea Imre
*An earlier version of this article was published in February 2024