from the rain-in-Spain-stays-mainly-in-the-sky dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Faced with a historic drought and threatened by desertification, Spain is rethinking how it spends its water resources, which are used mainly to irrigate crops.
"We must be extremely careful and responsible instead of looking the other way," Spain's Minister for the Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera said recently, about the impact of the lack of rain.
Like France and Italy, Spain has been gripped by several extreme heatwaves this summer after an unusually dry winter.
That has left the country's reservoirs at 40.4 percent of their capacity in August, 20 percentage points below the average over the last decade for this time of the year.
Officials have responded by limiting water use, especially in the southern region of Andalusia, which grows much of Europe's fruits and vegetables.
Reservoir water levels in the region are particularly low, just 25 percent at most of their capacity.
[...] Spain has built a vast network of dams to provide water for its farms and towns. During the 20th century, 1,200 large dams were built in the country, the highest number in Europe per capita. This has allowed Spain to increase the amount of irrigated land it has from 900,000 hectares (2,224,000 acres) to 3,400,000 hectares, according to the ecological transition ministry's website, which calls the country's water management system "an example of success".
But many experts say the system is now showing its limits.
The dams "had their use" but they have also encouraged the "overexploitation" of water and the decline in its quality by blocking the natural course of rivers, said Julio Barea, a water expert at Greenpeace Spain.
For the scientific council of the Rhone-Mediterranean Basin Committee, a French body which groups hydrology specialists, Spain is nearing the "physical limits" of its water management model.
[...] Spain's use of irrigation "is irrational," said Julia Martinez, biologist and director of the FNCA Water Conservation Foundation.
"We cannot be Europe's vegetable garden" while "there are water shortages for the inhabitants," she added.
Related Stories
Europe's drought exposes WWII ships, bombs and prehistoric stones:
Weeks of baking heat and drought across Europe have seen water levels in rivers and lakes fall to levels few can remember, exposing long-submerged treasures – and some deadly hazards.
In Spain, archaeologists have been delighted by the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the “Spanish Stonehenge” that is usually covered by waters of a dam that have fallen in the worst drought in decades.
[...] The stone circle was discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. Since then it has only become fully visible four times.
Another of Europe’s mighty rivers, the Danube, has fallen to one of its lowest levels in almost a century as a result of the drought, exposing the hulks of more than 20 German warships sunk during World War II near Serbia’s river port town of Prahovo.
[...] Memories of past droughts have also been rekindled in Germany by the reappearance of so-called “hunger stones” along the Rhine river. Many such stones have become visible along the banks of Germany’s largest river in recent weeks.
Bearing dates and people’s initials, their re-emergence is seen by some as a warning and reminder of the hardships people faced during former droughts.
Dates visible on stones seen in Worms, south of Frankfurt, and Rheindorf, near Leverkusen, included 1947, 1959, 2003 and 2018.
See also:
Europe's Rhine River Runs Dry
European Drought Dries Up Rivers, Kills Fish, Shrivels Crops
Drought Forces Water Use Rethink In Spain
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 09 2022, @07:33PM (15 children)
desalination
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @07:52PM (3 children)
Regreening the desert [youtube.com]
Fuck, that's 3 words. I lose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @10:06PM
Regreening the desert and putting all that water vapor up in the air will cause serious climate change, and in a hurry
(Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 10 2022, @08:06AM
Well, just switch to German. Then you can put such concepts in a single word. In this case: Wüstenwiederbegrünung.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 10 2022, @05:49PM
You can also tighten up sentences by adjectifying words, so 'desert regreening' could work.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @08:03PM (5 children)
Three words: that is expensive.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 10 2022, @01:09AM (4 children)
The bottom line is energy. We need more cheap energy, not less and more expencive as the current policy is dictating.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 10 2022, @08:08AM (3 children)
Yeah, if only Spain would have a source of cheap energy, like solar. But you know, there's not much sunshine in Spain. </sarcasm>
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 11 2022, @11:36AM (2 children)
Then again, the WEF want us to eat bugs, so I guess we are actually getting desperate.
OK, go ahead, ignore SMRs, do your solar if you must. Nuclear evil, I keep forgetting that.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday August 11 2022, @12:10PM (1 child)
https://georgejetson.org/eroi-solar-pv/ [georgejetson.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 11 2022, @02:25PM
But, still, it's not the pre-1940s any more - get that fricken' fission power rolled out already. Top tip - don't put Schroeder in any position of power or responsibility for anything.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Touché) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 09 2022, @09:56PM (2 children)
Yes, but where will Spain get the ocean water to desalinate? It's not like they're surrounded by it. /sarcasm
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 09 2022, @10:22PM
LOL, the answer to that seems simple. Just pipe it from Russia! /sarcasm
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday August 10 2022, @01:58AM
But only on three sides. /s
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2) by higuita on Tuesday August 09 2022, @11:41PM (1 child)
not only the initial cost is high, but the running costs are also very high, water needs to be pumped multiple times to slowly get less salty water in each cycle... that can be done for drinking some towns (specially if you can setup 2 water distribution, potable and other uses water, to try to lower the final cost) , but doing that for farms would be way too costly
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 10 2022, @01:40AM
solar is free, nooklar is unlimited, wind farms near the capitol will always supply power
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday August 09 2022, @07:35PM
Its the California problem, which will be "solved" the same way, by virtue signaling about not flushing the toilet after peeing and hating non-vegans. Meanwhile the rich farmers will get richer, etc.
(Score: 4, Funny) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 09 2022, @10:27PM (2 children)
<fx:crickets>
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 10 2022, @01:44PM (1 child)
Ran out of mod-points, before I got to your funny comment. It's funny, though! If in a dark way.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 10 2022, @03:12PM
o/
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Wednesday August 10 2022, @12:23AM (4 children)
Relocate all the bars & restaurants and move them into the fields. Also put out-of-order signs on their restrooms.
Now the patrons will have to go outside to pee and in the process you:
1) water the plants
2) save the water that would have gone to flush the toilet
A two for one!
Your welcome
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday August 10 2022, @12:32AM (3 children)
3) Fertilize the plants
You're welcome!
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 10 2022, @03:14PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday August 11 2022, @12:47AM (1 child)
Of course not. It's the stigmas that get fertilized.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 11 2022, @11:37AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 10 2022, @01:25AM (2 children)
No heat (Putin)
No fertilizer (Putin)
No water (God)
(Score: 4, Touché) by kazzie on Wednesday August 10 2022, @05:58AM
The former probably believes he's the latter, too.
(Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 10 2022, @08:13AM
FTFY
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.