Murcia local news, bad weather causes flooding, yet arguments over water supply to the region continue

2010-03-03

Weather conditions in the last 24 hours have varied from torrential rain,  storm force winds, bright sunshine, hail and alternating hot and cold winds, a most peculiar combination which is set to continue for another 24 hours.

In the North of Spain heavy rains have caused severe flooding, bursting of river banks and waterfalls to run which have been dry dust holes for many years, and a surprising report arrived in the in-box showing that the  Confederación Hidrográfica, who have responsibility for our water supplies are having to move water between reservoirs as so many of them are full, or nearly full, and they are concerned that some of the reservoirs could overflow if something is not done about the current volumes of water entering the system.

A massive storm has caused torrential rainfalls, and by torrential we mean figures quoted here such as in Santiago de Compostela where 233 litres fell per square metre recently, which is an awful lot of rain.

As a result of this, water reservoirs in Spain are currently at 77.1% of their total capacity, a figure which has not been attained for several years, and some are actually overflowing, some of them in Pais Vasco are completely full, whilst many in Cantabrico , Galicia and along the northern coastal areas are averaging 90% of their capacity.

The rains from this one storm alone have increased the entire nations water reserves by 5% in just a week, adding 560hm3 to reach a total of 42.711hm3 of water stored.

 

Meanwhile the massive resources poured into repairing the damage to the Canal Alto del Taibilla have resulted in the partial restoration of supplies to the southern municipalities.

A provisional tube system is now working which is capable of transporting 700 litres a second, which although not at the full capacity of the damaged canalway, is enough to ensure that there will be no watercuts in supply.The water is currently moving through the tubeline at the rate of 1 metre a second, so the first supplies should arrive in Alhama within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, we've still got another 24 hours of peculiar weather conditions before the weather settles down and the politicians have been at each others throats again today about the unwillingness of the north to transfer water down to the south to fill up our reservoirs whilst theirs are overflowing.

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

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