By: Ines Linder and Natalia Chairez
This year is the driest year in Spain since 1995. Water reserves are alarmingly low – especially in Andalucía, the country’s leading agricultural region. Everyone is feeling the effects – but farmers feel them the most.
“Sometimes, we have a week full of intense rain, then two to three months of nothing”
Paco Marín Salgado is a farmer in the town La Viñuela in Axarquía, Spain, famous for being the only region in Europe where the climate allows the growth of exotic fruits. Marín Salgado has been growing avocado and mango on his farm for the last twenty years.
According to Marín Salgado, Andalucía has always been hot, but problems with water supply have started to grow bigger over the last few years.
“Because of the climate, I need to save water to use in the summer. We have a community basin for irrigators right here, next to the river, where we go to get water over the months when it does rain”, Marín Salgado says and points to a large basin seen across the farm.
Back in the eighties, water supply was never a problem, according to Marín Salgado. The local authorities never had any regulations on how much to take out. Because of this, it became extremely profitable for farmers to work in the region. They could take out however much water they needed.
“The basin was filled up, emptied, then filled up again. It was limitless”, Marín Salgado says and shakes his head. “If you give a farmer however much water he wants, he is going to use more water than he needs. It’s only now when the basin is empty that the authorities recognize that it’s a problem.”
Marín Salgado walks in between avocado plants towards a small well made from red bricks.
“I am extremely lucky to have my own well. My farm is alive purely because of it. But I know that not everyone has this opportunity,” Marín Salgado says. “Without the well, I wouldn’t have any water at all”.
The water shortage affects more than just farmers
Axarquía gets its water from the Guadalquivir basin, which supplies water to the whole of Andalucía. Right now, the water level is below 25 %, with only 15 % allowed to use for irrigation. Because there is hardly any rain in the summer, the water level will decrease until autumn comes around.
This is alarming, according to Luis Berraquero, mobilization coordinator for Greenpeace. The non-governmental organization Greenpeace has been campaigning against the non-regulated use of water in Spain for years.
“We’ve been working with issues related to climate change for years, but have had a specific focus on the drought the last five years or so”, Berraquero says.
He states that the lack of water in regions such as Andalucía affects everyone – but especially people that live in rural areas where the infrastructure might not be as well developed as in the big cities. In Spain, around 82 % of water goes to agriculture. That is a problem, according to Barraquero.
“Water from agriculture gets contaminated by pesticides. It’s not only a question of lack of water, but also about the quality of the water. People can’t drink water with waste in it,” Berraquero says.
Taking into consideration that Andalucía is Spain’s largest agricultural sector, less water also means less exportation of agricultural produce. The effects can already be seen on a national level. There has been a rapid decrease in the exportation of fruits and vegetables such as olives, oranges, avocado, and mango, according to statistics from the Spanish federation of associations of producers and exporters of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and live plants, Fepex.
Spain has for long been focused on growing the agricultural sector that they have forgotten about the people and the environment, according to Berraquero.
“We’ve had agricultural politics that have been super focused on export which has led to a hyper-industrialized agricultural sector. We are the biggest producer of avocado in Europe. At the same time, we import avocado from Chile that’s over 200 kilometers away. I think it’s absurd,” Berraquero says.
Illegal wells contribute to the lack of water
According to Barraquero, one of the contributing problems with the water supply in Spain, apart from the changing weather, is the presence of illegal wells. They are used by farmers to get their hands on more water than what the regulations allow for, making it harder for the government to secure a safe and clean water supply to citizens.
“Access to water is a fundamental human right. It’s only just now that the government has started to do more about the problem by finding and penalizing the people who steal water,” Barraquero says.
Berraquero claims that although the government recognizes the problem with illegal wells, they don’t seem to have a clear plan on what to do about it.
“If I were to go down to Andalucía’s regional government and say ‘Hi, I’m a citizen that’s worried about the climate change, could you tell me how many illegal wells there are in this country and what you are doing about it?’ They wouldn’t know how to answer me,” Berraquero says.
There is not much updated official data on illegal extractions of water in Spain, but the Spanish Geological Institute estimated there to exist around a thousand illegal wells in Spain in 2018. That represents seven billion cubic meters of water extracted illegally each year, which is in line with data from Greenpeace from both 2006 and 2013.
Water – crucial to Spain’s economy
Although the drought has been going on for long, it hasn’t been Spain’s biggest problem, according to Luis Babiano. He is the general manager of the Spanish association of public water suppliers and sanitation, AEOPAS.
“In the fifties, Spain had a big problem with feeding its population because of economic problems. Thanks to our hydrologic politics, we survived and managed to develop into a big food export country,” Babiano says.
But the same economic model can’t be used today, according to Babiano.
“Can we use the same type of model as before? I don’t think so. Spain is in the progress of creating a new model to suit today’s needs, but that won’t be done in a day,” Babiano says.
The creation of a model fit for the future relies on the collaboration between different sectors, Babiano states.
“It will take a lot of time and it involves a lot of social actors, not only the state or the government. Companies, universities, the public sector, the private sector, they all need to collaborate to find a way forward.” Babiano says.
Regional crisis plans – a way to tackle the drought’s acute consequences
A way that the Spanish government is trying to handle the acute effects of the drought is by introducing crisis plans, Babiano explains.
“There is a law regarding the crisis plans but it’s quite ambiguous. It just says that every town with more than 20,000 citizens needs to follow a drought crisis plan. It organizes local sectors involved in the drought to plan the water management as well as informing the public on how bad the drought is in their specific area,” Babiano says.
Apart from the crisis plan, the Spanish government also tries to work to increase public participation in supporting the sustainable use of water in different regions. The public’s reactions to this have varied.
“The plan in itself isn’t controversial. It’s the ways the regions want to cut the use of water that is, especially in the sectors that are the most affected by the drawbacks.” Babiano says.
The drought crisis plan includes a plan for technological and infrastructural advancements to prepare Spain for the future, taken into practice two years ago. As of now, Andalucía is currently looking at different offers from companies and entrepreneurs that could help ease the economic and environmental consequences of the drought, according to Leonor Camacho Cascajo, a technician working with the website run by the Andalusian regional government related to the drought crisis plan.
“Right now, we are looking at the options and what it would mean to implement some of these proposals, as well as looking into whether we would need to use economic aid to take them on,” Camacho Cascajo says.
Infrastructure and technology – central in finding a way forward
The problem with water supply isn’t limited to Spain. For instance, Israel is a country that’s been dealing with severe droughts for years and, like Spain, most of the water goes to the agricultural sector. Contrary to Spain though, Israel has managed to reverse the water situation through large scale desalination of seawater and the reuse of wastewater, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2020.
Now the country has a surplus of water.
“In order to be more resilient towards the drought in the next few years, we need to continue to improve infrastructure. There are certain types of infrastructure that needs to be avoided in order to reduce water losses,” Emilio Camacho says.
Emilio Camacho is a professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of Cordóba. He is part of the expert team that the Spanish government has put together to research solutions for the drought.
“Hydraulic infrastructure is very important because it significantly reduces water losses. Channels must be in a good condition, pipes must be renewed, especially in the cities. In the case of irrigators, there is a need to replace the open distribution systems, meaning channels, with closed ones, with pipes.” Camacho continues.
Camacho says that the Spanish government is currently focused on responding to emergency situations.
“Although it is currently raining in Andalucía, it will not substantially improve the water levels in the reservoir. Irrigation subsidies have been significantly reduced because there are no resources. In coastal areas, we encourage the use of regenerated water and increasing the use of saltwater.” Camacho explains.
Apart from resolving specific situations, the government is also offering fiscal assistance to the sector that is the most affected by the drought – farmers. For around 250,000 farmers and ranchers working in Andalucía, there is a 25% tax reduction.
“Because there are no water resources, many farmers don’t have an income.” Camacho says.
What does the future hold for Spain?
“We can see that over time, throughout all of Spain but especially Andalucía, the rain is much more intense, but it rains for fewer days and it only rains in a small area,” Jesús Vargas, professor of Geology at the University of Málaga says.
Jesús Vargas is currently working at the Citizen Observatorium of the drought, collecting data that is used by the Spanish government to evaluate the water situation in different regions.
Vargas says that not only the rain is affected, but also the temperatures. They have risen in recent years.
“It’s clear that the droughts are going to be more intense and more frequent in the future.” Vargas states.
Paco Marín Salgado, the farmer from Axarquía, still chooses to remain hopeful. He thinks that what the government is doing right now is in the right direction towards finding a solution for the future.
“The government can’t just tell farmers in Andalucía to stop growing avocado. It’s just a matter of how to do it sustainably.” Marín Salgado says.