Ships bring water to parched Barcelona

Ships bring water to parched Barcelona

Climb down the stony banks of the massive Sau reservoir in the mountains above Barcelona and you get a real sense of why this famous city is so short of water that it's resorted to bringing in emergency supplies - by ship.

Nestling in a deep valley of stunning cliffs and forests, this vital source of water has sunk so low it's exposed the eerie sight of a medieval village that was flooded when the reservoir was opened in the 1960s.

The huddle of ancient stone buildings, including a church with its spire, has now re-emerged into the light and stands as a potent symbol of the severity of this water crisis.

The emergence of the village has brought sightseers to the reservoir

In a year that so far ranks as Spain's driest since records began 60 years ago, the reservoir is currently holding as little as 18% of its capacity - at a time of year when winter rains would usually have provided an essential boost by now.

Rainfall figures show a consistent series of shortfalls in recent years - just as Barcelona's population has expanded to more than five million and the region's booming agribusinesses demand ever more irrigation.

For residents here, the arrival of water by ship is a profound shock - normally it's the drier areas further South that are notoriously parched.

Already they are living with restrictions on the use of hosepipes and the filling of swimming pools.

Shipments of water are now needed to sustain the great city

Now the Barcelona authorities are having to take the unprecedented step for any major European city of topping up supplies by the highly visible means of giant tankers arriving in relays, each bringing 28 million litres, up to a dozen ships coming over the next month.

The shipments won't be enough to restore the reservoirs - or make the ancient village vanish again.

But they may buy time for a highly controversial pipeline to be completed by the end of the year. That should bring more reliable supplies from a neighbouring region but at a high political cost.

And it may also remind people of the forecasts from climate scientists of still drier conditions to come in the approaching decades.

By David Shukman 
BBC environment correspondent, Barcelona

70% shortfall!

The Generaltat de Catalunya website has published the official rainfall figures for our region.

Our finca is in the orange coloured area on the extreme top right.

A dry water year

% Rainfall compared to the climatic average (2006–2007)
2006-2007 was the third consecutive year to register a more or less generalised deficit in rainfall levels

The 2006-2007 water year, which ran from 1st September 2006 to 31st August 2007, is considered to have been dry in most of Catalonia, as it rained between 70% and 90% with regard to the climatic average. Despite being the third consecutive year in which most of Catalonia registered rainfall levels lower than the average, this year was not as extreme as the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 water years.

This data was extracted from the report drawn up by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) based on the information about rainfall collected from the automatic meteorological stations (EMAs).

The shortage of rainfall was most notable in the central Pre-Pyrenees area, specifically in the upper valley of the River Llobregat, with values lower than 70% compared to the climatic average. This was also the case in certain points of the upper valleys of the Rivers Segre and Ter.

Further information

Note from the del SMC (110KB)
Report on the 2006-2007 water year (2,5MB) (cat)
The Climate in Catalonia

Related topic: The Environment

Legal notice | about the web | © 1995-2007 Generalitat de Catalunya

Glimmer of hope.

Seed sowing is now underway, although the forecast is for more bad weather next week the daylight hours are numerous enough for the plants to grow. The seeds of the Lantana pictured here were saved last autumn and are amongst those that are to be sown. The woody seed pods pictured on a previous post have been opened with more than a little firm persuasion and a few of those seeds have been sown too.

Northern European Winter and Spring seem to ebb and flow like the tide and its easy to get caught out by the arrival of a sudden cold snap. The heated propagator and cold frames help to stabilise the planting environment and lengthen the growing season to make seed raised plants a viable and cost effective way of gardening.

Southern Europe seems to have a much shorter winter period and the Mayor of the Spanish village where our Mediterranean garden is situated feels that, 'winter here lasts only three weeks'. I hope she is right. Though I know that our neighbour Joan flies off to Brazil for a month as soon as he needs to remove the ice from his swimming pool, winters here can be cold but are usually quite dry. He also keeps his prized collection of finches indoors a little longer than that three week winter, before Springtime allows them the freedom of his aviary.

After winter has slowed down the pace of the garden year, Spring arrives with a flourish of wild flowers and instills a sense of urgency into the gardener. Weeds prosper when your back is turned and there is much clearing up to do, and there are beds that will need to be prepared for planting. Cultivating your garden without digging seems an attractive proposition but living in the countryside with those millions of airborne weed seeds makes it a little unlikely at the moment.

Right on time

Keeping one eye on America is one of the shrewdest tricks in the U.K. amateur weather forecaster’s armoury. America’s weather generally turns up in the U.K. two weeks later, and sure enough today the snow has arrived right on schedule bringing the south of the country to a standstill. This situation is much to the amusement of the far hardier northern tribes of Britain and I believe to many Scandinavians too.

Itchy fingers

My itchy fingers will have to wait a couple more weeks until the days begin to lengthen; the spring equinox is due on March the 21^st 2007. Before seed sowing begins in earnest I will have to clean up the old propagator and also pots and seed pans that have been previously used. I have in recent years favoured the use of old food containers which are used only for a season and then recycled.

Whilst in Tenerife I collected seed from this plant which I will have to identify before I can label them.

Winter is about to start in northern Europe and there are bound to be casualties of the weather. Seed and cuttings are a good insurance policy against winter losses.

Times they are a changin'.

Un-seasonably warm. This was a phrase I had heard used many times over the years and perhaps it is a cautionary phrase. In our perception of ‘unusual’ weather patterns so often our anecdotal evidence is later confounded by the record keepers. Maybe now though those records will have to be rewritten.

In the garden and countryside autumn colour, or so it seems, now lasts days instead of weeks. Longer dryer summers give way to cooler wetter winters which also last longer too. Spring and autumn so often the best months to enjoy the great outdoors, seem to be squeezed unceremoniously between them.

This year for the first December in memory raspberry canes are still fruiting in the cold damp climate of north eastern England. The growers of those canes are surprised and confounded, and they are undecided about when best to prune them whether to follow the plant or the calendar.

Hedgehogs, because of the summer heat and drought have deferred raising their young till later in the year. As a consequence those youngsters have little chance of finding enough food to enable them to store the body fat which enables them to hibernate through the long winter. Many will therefore die, unless gardeners leave out food for them in the next few weeks and even then it may be too little too late for the hedgehog.

In the USA snow is already reaching towns it hardly ever touches whilst elsewhere other gardeners may still be picking tomatoes at Christmas time.

European lands are still waiting for the autumn rains to replenish their water courses and aquifers. Spring crops, flora and fauna will all suffer as a consequence.

Insects are able to evolve and therefore respond more quickly to the climate change than more their more complex predators. Scientists have been surprised how mosquitoes have evolved in only three generations breeding later in the year than they formally did, this enables them to beat the drought and emerge when the rains return.

Zoned

According to the map I'm in a zone 9 area, but the weather doesn't know it! Since I began this garden I've experienced ,

• The hottest summer 48C
  
• The coldest winter and -12C
• The Longest drought - rain what's rain?
  

since the weather was first recorded in Spain.

http://www.aroid.org/horticulture/zonemap/

The canas- food for thought!

The Cannas are showing the first sings of recovery after the storm. Now though Fransico´s sheep have added them to the menu!

I was a bit concerned at having to overwinter them outside because of the harsh winter of 2005, maybe if the ground is not water logged they can stand the cold.

They will have to be tough to survive here.

Aftermath

The thick sticky mud envelops all our plants, the ice will stunt the young plants we have sown in trays and pots.

The Cannas look like torn rags. Soil and rock heaps we were working have become wet and compacted and even more dificult to dig; though underneath the top few inches they look powder dry.

Hail in the nursery bed

Cuttings and stock plants will have been checked in their growth by the freak weather.

Wilderness

Hot and sunny Spain has been washed away in the storm.

Mediterranean plants do not like to sit in water the books state, ice and water must be worse still.

April fools day

April fools day was meant to be the 1st of April but here on the 20th of April we had a second occasion.

As the cutting of the finca continued under the bright blue spring sky a solitary figure crossed our land heading towards us. It was Miguel father of one of our neighbours and he was concerned that my eight young olive trees had disapeared. Having introduced him to Carol, I explained to Miguel that I had had to move them as the year long drought followed by my winter visit to England meant that they had not established. Their position at the far boundry of the finca also meant a long walk each day with water. Now in pots and placed nearer to the house they would get more attention and should flourish. He approved.

Carol was taking no chances and returned to the grass cutter!

Miguel was bemoaning the fact that he had lost the garden he tendered at his son´s home. They had installed a swimming pool and his cultivated vegtable plot had gone. Now he could only walk around the village watching others working.

We discussed the lack of rain, Miguel said that until three years ago there was always enough rain but now it rarely if ever came. I pointed out to him that grey clounds were all around us and that maybe we would get rainfall soon. He dismissed this saying that the wind was in the north and therefore no rain would fall. Saying goodbye he continued on his daily walk.

Within a few minutes the wind changed round and as the grey cloud on the horizon turned black it began to drift towards us. The wind speed increased and now I could smell the distant rain.

Mrs. Gravy agreed to a short break from our endevours as the machine would need to cool before re-fueling. From the house we watched as the sky grew still darker surely now we will get rain. Yes, yes there it is the rain has started getting heavier by the second and now the thunder and lighting a real storm with lots of rain.............and now hailstones big hail-stones lots and lots of them.

Soon the newly planted beds were under water, the seed trays were covered in ice and the finca was enveloped in fog. The large but delicate jungle leaves of the Cannas were torn to shreds.

We felt like April fools!

Thermals

The midst of a Siberian winter which is exacerbated by the strong northerly Tramontana winds, is making life extremely unpleasant. The winds are blowing most days now and drying the land even more, if that is possible.

Although snow caps the mountain tops, as little as 10% will be converted to water. Even then that water is likely to be absorbed long before it reaches the rivers.

At night temperatures are often -6 degrees C. but last night the forecast of -9 was beaten, I recorded -12 degrees C.

We are experiencing the coldest winter on record here, the hot water bottle is working overtime.

Houses without insulation and heating get colder day by day, stories of ex-pats going home to escape the winter in this 'mild climate' were common place.

Spring is (not) in the air

First day back on the prairie like landscape and it is quite promising, the taxi driver told me about the 20 degrees and sunshine of the the previous week. If it stayed that way and we had rain to accompany the temperatures it could be a long growing season.

My time will be taken up with researching the acquisition and installation of a geo-thermal heat pump. This will involve a lot of excavation to lay the extensive pipework that will be required to absorb the energy from the land, that the pump will convert to heat for domestic hot water and central heating.

At night the temperatures fall quite sharply.

Autumn

The autumn rains have not materialized. The temperatures are pleasant during the day with clear blue sky, but much cooler at night. Due to the ongoing fire risk we can not burn our perennial weeds, not until November at the earliest.

Seedlings and rooted plant cuttings that were growing on strongly have been wiped out by the 500 sheep that graze the sparse grass each day. With so little vegetation around anything still growing appears to be a magnet for them. Time to start again.