Head of Junta advocates maintaining drought measures and investments despite recent rains

The president, Juanma Moreno, warned that the storms have been unevenly distributed unevenly across the Andalucía region

José Luis Piedra

Seville

Wednesday, 12 March 2025, 14:02

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, gave his backing this week to continuing with the measures and investments aimed at combating the drought in the region despite the let-up in the water shortages due to the recent heavy rains.

Moreno advocated continuing with preventive, water-saving measures and not slowing down the investments in hydraulic works deemed so necessary for the region, despite the fact that it has been raining heavily in the last few weeks.

This request by Moreno for no one to lower their guard when it comes to water matters was formally conveyed to central government. This was done to ensure that the Spanish government maintains its investments, given that "water-related projects are fundamental for the present and future economic, social and quality of life in Andalucía, for which cooperation and collaboration is required from all governing bodies", he stressed.

Able to withstand future droughts

"What I ask is that this investment effort that we have been asking of the wider state authorities and the European Union for years should not be slowed down by the fact that we have had three consecutive storm fronts, because this is undoubtedly a great relief for the water situation, but unfortunately it is not the definitive solution," said Moreno.

As such, he expressed his hope that the plans that are under way "will not stop, that the commitments we have made will not be limited and that we can achieve the great objective we have set ourselves so that, by 2027 and 2028, we will largely have the necessary infrastructures to withstand future droughts that are expected as a result of climate change, which are going to be severe and long-lasting."

These comments were made by Moreno during his visit this week to inaugurate the water supply pipeline to the northern area of the Cadiz municipality of San Roque. He also mentioned the improvement in Andalucía's water situation in general due to the latest rainfall while noting that it had rained "with an unequal distribution that prevents the drought situation from being overcome for the moment."

Moreno further stressed that water reserves are widely varied in the areas of eastern and western Andalucía. He gave some details: in Cadiz province the reservoirs have gained 135 million cubic metres and their reserves are at 38.8%; in Malaga they have gained 60 million cubic metres and their reservoirs are at 41.8% and in Huelva they have gained 35.5 million cubic metres more and are up to 57.4%. In contrast Granada has gained much less, barely 1.6 million cubic metres, but their reservoirs are at 61% full on average. Finally, in Almeria they have only accumulated 1.3 million cubic metres and their reserves remain at just 9.4%.

New reservoirs

Turning to comments from the regional minister for agriculture, water and more, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, he said that Andalucía "does not have enough reservoirs" with which to have more capacity to store water, leading him to call for the construction of new reservoirs. In this regard, he considered the Alcolea dam in Huelva and the work underway to approve two new reservoirs in the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz to be "fundamental and unrenounceable."

The regional minister expressed his satisfaction on Canal Sur Radio for the improvement in the water reserves of Andalucía's reservoirs in recent days, which has allowed them to rise more than 16 points in a year, going from 27.84% of their capacity to 44.47% this week. They now register 1.99 billion cubic metres more than there were in 2024 at this time.

Nevertheless, he declared on air that "the rains are doing us a lot of good but they can't lead us to relax and we are going to work as if not a drop of water had fallen."

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