weird weather

[Lavanda]

It looks very pretty. That's a lot of rivers feeding the reservoir. What about underground springs?

[El Cid]

According to Wikipedia, the Salia is another name for the Rio Alcaucin and it goes into the lake. Have they got it wrong?

https://www.wikiwand.com/es/Pantano_de_La_Vi%C3%B1uela

Sid

[gavilan]

yes Salia (or Zalia) is another name for the Rio Alcaucin ... it refers to that section of the river that runs down in the valley below the hill where is found the castle Zalia ... but note: the river runs in the valley below said castle ... there are hills all along on the right between the river and the reservoir ... to get to the reservoir one drives up and over these hills and down to what is left of said reservoir ...

Lavanda, I dont know what pic makes you think it is very pretty ... just a dried up dust bowl now and has been for several years ... even after that heavy rain. the water level only increased from 7.8 to 9.9 %...

[Lavanda]

I don't want to be horrid but that is tiny. It's only 164,37 hm3. Maybe you need more reservoirs? I know someone will say there is no point having more of the things if the ones you have already are not full but something is not right, is it?

I've just done some looking up:

Andalucia as a whole gets an average 40.06mm of rain a year
Extremadura as a whole gets an average 52.50mm of rainfall a year

Málaga province gets 469.20mm of rainfall per year
Cáceres province gets 554.00mm rainfall per year

Well, our biggest 'export' is agriculture so we do need the water. As far as I know we do not grow mangoes, avocados or even strawberries but lots of cherries, apples, nectarines, peaches and we have other produce but not much thirsty fruit.

PS Gavilan. The photo on the link El Cid posted.

[El Cid]

The country, as a whole, has more than enough water. The problem is that it's not evenly distributed. The costs of creating the connections to create a "National Grid" for water are prohibitive. It's much the same in the UK - in the South East they get winter floods followed by a summer hosepipe ban!

Sid

[gavilan]

ok Lavanda looking at the site/pic Sid posted I understand why you think it is pretty ... but ... that pic must have been taken at least 5 years ago ... it is now 91% empty ... try googling 'drought Vinuela reservoir 2024 ..

[Lavanda]

The cost of a 'National Grid' may be prohibitive but the long-term cost of doing nothing will actually be much worse. Barcelona is currently in a severe drought and they are in the north! If the biggest city in Spain is suffering, maybe someone will start to notice? Problems need to have solutions no matter how daunting they are. The Romans didn't mess around. They would have solved all this by now. They built canals and aqueducts over many kilometres to bring fresh water to their new cities. We have better technology today so if there was enough political will, maybe something could be/would be done?

[olive]

There is a suggested plan to reuse processed waste water from Malaga and pipeline it inland. This will apparently relieve the pressure on the aquifers!

In my view it won’t unless farmers are made to stop using aquifer water. That won’t happen with PSOE and certainly not with Vox or PP. It does make sense to reduce what water is put into the sea.

The only answer is a lot more desalination plants, national grid style pipelines and a permanent culture of self regulation or enforced usage limits per person or farm.

[olive]

Useful resource on water in Andalucia

https://andalucia.com/living/utilities-water.htm

Interesting how little has been transferred from other Spanish basins!

[Lavanda]

Do you have action groups? We successfully stopped wind turbines from being plastered all over our local sierra by a group of French ‘businessmen’ one of whom was wanted for fraud in Central America. I learned a huge amount about doggy people, underhand subsidy money, fraud and how to keep calm and put pressure on politicians - lots of pressure. I was one of a group and doing something, rather than nothing, was important for me. I think, in your valley, you need rain but you need to make things happen. If your water continues to drop year-on-year then every year of no action and no solution will become more and more dangerous for all of you. (Only my opinions, of course).

[gavilan]

methinks it is not just persuading farmers to use less water ... the obsession/dependency on tourism needs to be reconsidered

[Lavanda]

Maybe start somewhere small? Farmers first and then tourists?

About 25 years ago, when I had my house in Coín, I remember there was a panic about water. Tourists were limited to one shower a day and only lasting x minutes (I forget how many but not many). Tourists tended to shower in the morning, once they were home from the beach/sightseeing and maybe once before they went out/before they went to bed. There were some pretty scathing remarks from Spanish people about how the tourists only showered once a week at home but once in Spain, they went bonkers with the showers.

Also, you posted that one river goes past your property and you were concerned the you could not abstract any of it. Maybe you can.

Does the river go past your property closely? If it does, get your local water diviner (ask the Spanish) and get him to walk the length of the river as it runs past your property. Dig a well where he indicates. Get some local with a digger, put river stones in the bottom once you hit the water, line it with a concrete sleeve and put a lid on it. Make sure the well is lower than the river bed. You will get water. You cannot not get water. The water is for agricultural use only. In practice the Hidrographic Office owns 30m on either side of any river, stream, arroyo, etc and has the right to inspect the areas at any time. Under no circumstances ever mention the well to them. If you do they will have to make some sort of decision and action something but if you never mention it they can pretend they have not seen it — if they inspect. This works. It really does.

[El Cid]

Digging illegal wells down here is part of the problem. Advising someone to do that is very unwise.

Sid

[Wicksey]

Warning of calima later this week, apparently almost as bad as two years back. Hopefully they are wrong as everyone will be wanting to powerwash their houses. There are quite a few in this valley that remain cinnamon coloured from the last lot. Our house is yellow so doesn't look so bad after a bout of Saharan dust!

[Lavanda]

Noted, El Cid. Sorry.

[gavilan]

I am more interested in conserving/saving existing water and changing what we plant here than drilling/exacting the last drop from an acquifer or similar

Wicksey commented on the liklihood of more calima this week ... this place is still covered in the stuff from 2 years ago ... as it was an old flour mill ... it just looks a bit older now!!!

[Wicksey]

https://www.surinenglish.com/andalucia/ ... 15-nt.html

[Pamela1]

Warning of calima later this week, apparently almost as bad as two years back. Hopefully they are wrong as everyone will be wanting to powerwash their houses. There are quite a few in this valley that remain cinnamon coloured from the last lot. Our house is yellow so doesn't look so bad after a bout of Saharan dust!

I hope it's not as bad as it was 2 yrs ago, we painted everywhere.

[El Cid]

If you want to see the current calima forecast chart, its here

https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/charts ... 2403240000

It doesn't look good. We just have to hope it doesn't rain!

Sid

[gavilan]

so rain (plus calima?) was forecast for last night ... here nothing!