MADRID, Aug 8, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - 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.

"The situation is dramatic," said University of Jaen hydrology professor
Rosario Jimenez, adding both underground aquifers and surface bodies of water
were running low.

The situation is especially worrying since it is part of a long-term trend
linked to climate change, she added.

Parts of Spain are the driest they have been in a thousand years due to an
atmospheric high-pressure system driven by climate change, according to a
study published last month in the journal, Nature Geoscience.

Greenpeace estimates that 75 percent of the country is susceptible to
desertification.

- 'Overexploitation' -

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 network of dams relies on sufficient rainfall to replenish its many
reservoirs, it said.

But "the climate changes already under way, which will continue in the
decades to come, will increase the risk of failures," the body said in a
recent report.

Experts say the way Spain uses water is also a major problem.

"Consumption has not stopped increasing while water is becoming increasingly
scarce. It's an aberration," said Barea.

- 'Europe's vegetable garden' -

Spain is the second most visited country in the world and significant amounts
of water are used in tourism infrastructure like swimming pools and golf
courses.

But agriculture absorbs the bulk -- over 80 percent -- of the country's water
resources.

It is sometimes used to grow crops that are not suitable for a dry climate --
such as strawberries or avocados -- for export to other European countries.

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.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government adopted a strategic plan
last month to adapt Spain's water management system to "the impacts of global
warming".

It includes measures to promote water recycling and "efficient and rational"
uses of resources.

But specialists say that reforms remain timid, with many regions continuing
to increase the amount of irrigated land.

"We need more drastic measures," said Barea, who called for a restructuring
of the agriculture system.

Martinez shares this view, saying Spain is currently the European nation
"exerting the most pressure on its water resources."

"Today there are decisions that no one wants to take. We can't continue to
blindly forge ahead," she said.