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The Spanish government wants to provide twelve billion euros to cope with the prolonged drought. Already in April, 1.4 billion euros were released for this purpose. A large part of the money is to be used to improve infrastructure and build desalination plants. In addition, the environment ministry is making three billion euros available for the "promotion of digitalisation for better management of water resources".
Spain recorded its driest start to a year since records began in the 1960s in the first four months of 2023. The worst affected areas were Andalusia in the south and Catalonia in the north, where a state of emergency was declared in 24 municipalities. There, authorities restricted water use for agriculture by 80 per cent and for industry by 25 per cent. Spanish residents were asked to reduce their daily water consumption from 250 to 200 litres. This image from the Copernicus satellite monitoring programme shows the situation during the first ten days of June 2023, when 60 per cent of the country was under drought alert.
According to the Coordinator of Farmers' and Ranchers' Organisations (COAG), the drought has destroyed the crops of 3.5 million hectares. Forecasts predict losses of twelve per cent for the Spanish wine harvest compared to 2022.
(al / source: drinksbusiness)