Water queue in Spain

A severe drought has made tap water undrinkable in several towns in Spain's Costa Blanca region, forcing tourists and locals to queue at bottled water dispensers to meet their needs. base, reports Reuters. Against the backdrop of the drop in the water level, the salinity increased, which forced the authorities in some areas to declare the tap water unsafe for drinking or cooking. Bottled water is distributed free of charge. Excessive real estate development, climate change and mass tourism in the summer months, when the population explodes in popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean basin, have exacerbated the problem, environmental activists say. For example, in the Marina Alta area, north of the provincial capital Alicante, water consumption reached 19.67 billion liters in July, up from 2.3 billion liters in January. In this area there are almost 38,000 swimming pools, i.e. one for every five inhabitants, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The average in Spain is one swimming pool per 35 inhabitants. The lack of water has forced some local councils to ban activities such as filling swimming pools, watering gardens or washing cars during the day. "We have already entered a climate emergency," said Joan Sala of the environmental NGO Accio Ecologista-Agro, citing the low level of rainfall in the northern part of Alicante province, which last year received only half the usual amount of precipitation and this year only 10% of the average level. "A lot more foresight is needed, because now, during the summer, there are a lot more people here than in the winter," said Fernando Sapena, owner of the restaurant El Raco De L'arros in the town of Teulada-Moraira, which specializes in paella. a traditional Valencian dish. The drought also caused losses of over 65 million euros for the agricultural sector in the region, estimated in July the farmers' association ASAJA.