A flock of sheep hides from the midday sun under the Gothic arches of a medieval bridge. A flood in 1956 created the Sijara Reservoir in central Spain. After a severe drought, the reservoir is 84% empty.
In Andalusia, one of Europe's hottest and driest regions, rowboats and waterslides lie abandoned on the cracked floor of the Vinuela Reservoir, remnants of the rental business disappearing with the water. , has now reached a dangerous level of 13%.
Nearby restaurants fear a similar fate.
"The situation is very dramatic in the sense that it has not rained in several years, and we are at rock bottom," said owner Francisco Bazaga, 52. The future of alternative water supplies is very, very bleak.
A prolonged dry season and extreme heat have made July the hottest month in Spain since at least 1961. became. According to official data, the Spanish reservoir had an average capacity of just 40% in his early August, well below its 10-year average of about 60%.
"We are in a particularly dry year and a very difficult year that confirms what climate change scenarios have emphasized," Energy Minister Teresa Rivera said at a news conference on Monday. He also stressed that droughts are leading to devastating damage. Forest fire.
Climate change has brought parts of the Iberian Peninsula to their driest conditions in his 1,200 years, with even less winter precipitation expected, the Journal of Nature Geoscience said last month. Studies have shown.
The dry and hot weather is likely to continue into autumn, Spanish weather service AEMET said in a recent report, adding more to Europe's largest network of dams and reservoirs with a storage capacity of 5.6 billion cubic meters. I am burdened.
At the Buendía Reservoir, east of Madrid, Reuters drone footage shows a reconstruction of the ruins of a village and a public bath clogged with dry mud, and another dam near Barcelona. In , a 9th-century Romanesque church has been restored intact. , to attract visitors.
