This situation is reflected in the current capacities of the two giant reservoirs in the Tramuntana - Cuber and Gorg Blau. Between the two of them, they have only 29% of total capacity at present. This can be compared with December last year, when the capacity was almost double: 55%.
Councillor Neus Truyol, the president of the Palma public services agency, Emaya, says that the situation is worrying but that it is for now manageable. (The reservoirs supply Palma.) She adds that the situation is indicative of the threat posed by climate change, albeit stressing that there is officially no drought being declared.
The government's director of water resources, Juana Mariá Garau, is also talking in terms of these resources being scarce. Underground aquifers are present at 55%, but Garau points out that it is necessary to start making the public aware that, in this regard, the quality of water might be affected. With water in the Tramuntana and the south of the island at the low levels that it is, then it can become sulphated. In the Pla region of the island (from Santa Margalida and Muro in the north to Porreres towards the south), the risk is of high levels of nitrates forming.
In the farming sector, there is talk of an "orange" warning because of the risks. The head of the Asaja agriculture businesses association, Joan Simonet, recognises that if it doesn't start to rain, then farmers are going to be seriously affected. Crops were sown in October, and then in November there was not a great deal of rain. They began to grow, nevertheless, but the continuing lack of rain and higher temperatures than normal mean that oats and barley will not be developing as they should. If the crops fail, then farmers will need to buy food for their herds. He hopes, therefore, that the government is making provision in the case that the dry conditions continue.
2 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Yes here in the North West of England we have had torrential rain and widespread flooding even in town and city centres. This has broken all records since they began. Maybe as the weather these days is all about face maybe we can look forward to heavy rainfall next time we come back to Mallorca in July.
Where I live in the North West of England,we have had virtually no summer this year and record rainfall,it's been truly awful and guess what,they blame that on climate change as well,damn odd kind of climate change when both extremes are blamed on the same cause and nor did the much-shouted about arctic winter arrive this year,so far,it's been the mildest ever recorded