Sedella is latest Malaga province village to introduce water cuts

The town hall has brought in nighttime restrictions to a thousand residents living in rural areas due to a 60 per cent drop in the level of its well

Eugenio Cabezas

Sedella

Tuesday, 1 August 2023, 19:16

Water restrictions continue to spread across Malaga province as the summer progresses and the drought worsens. The latest village to join the list is Sedella, which sits in the foothills of La Maroma; the highest mountain in the province. This brings to nine the number of towns and villages that are experiencing regular cuts to the water supply.

The cuts mainly affect rural areas outside the Axarquía village, which are normally home to around 700 people, but can be up to 1,000 during summer, according to the mayor of Sedella, Francisco Abolafio.

According to the mayor, who spoke to SUR on Monday 31 July, the village is supplied by two wells located inside the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama mountains, which have lost 60 per cent of their flow in recent weeks. He explained that as a result of this considerable decline in water resources, the nighttime interruptions came into force in mid-July.

Solutions

"The effect varies depending on the day of the week, but it is most noticeable at weekends, which is when we have more people here," Abolafío added. "We have to ensure that the wells are completely full and that is why we are making the nighttime cuts," he explained and highlighted that the cuts are also affecting local farmers supplied by the La Fuente river, which has also seen a drastic decline in flow of water.

"Right now we have few possible solutions, we want to improve the wells, but that will be in the autumn and winter, because we have to be authorised by the Junta de Andalucía," said Abolafío, who said he is considering approving a municipal decree with restrictions on the use of drinking water in the town, as other town halls in the Axarquía have already done.

"We thought that the drought was not going to affect us so much, but the two wells, which are 90 metres deep, have fallen by 60 per cent in just a few weeks," he said.

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