Western Costa del Sol to be declared in exceptional drought by the Junta de Andalucia

Junta de Andalucia to declare the Western Costa del Sol to be in a state of exceptional drought

Carmen Crespo, head of Andalucia’s Ministry of Sustainability, announced today, Friday, March 11, that her department will take the extension of the Drought Decree to the Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucia next week.

She revealed this during a visit to the ongoing works on the Guadalmedina riverbed, where she pointed out that this extension will entail the inclusion of the Western Costa del Sol in areas of exceptional drought.

“We are anticipating the situation that is coming, that if it doesn’t rain this week it will be very complicated”, Ms Crespo explained. She highlighted that the Mediterranean basin currently contains just 29 per cent of its capacity. This series of measures go hand in hand with the meeting that they will hold with the irrigators next week.

In addition, she urged the central government “to deal with the same speed with which we deal with the drought”, announcing that this extension of the Drought Decree will entail “more measures, more restrictions, and more compensation for irrigators”.

Ms Crespo pointed out that 67 per cent of the powers in Andalucia in this field belong to the State, which is why she has urged the Executive to “take measures, and accompany us in the measures that we are taking with their works”.

It has been requested that Next Generation European funds be allocated to this task. “This is an exceptional moment for European funds, why are these resources not used for our region, which is especially affected?”, she asked, before requesting that “desalinated water be subsidised as was done in the Canary Islands in 2020”.

Elias Bendodo, the Minister of the Presidency, had earlier announced that at the next Conference of Presidents, Juanma Moreno will ask the Government to adopt measures to address the drought, and to alleviate the current economic situation, in which the rise in fuel prices has had a very negative effect on farmers.

Crespo pointed out that the Board had asked to launch the national drought table, but that since it met “there is not a single measure on the table by the State”, as reported by malagahoy.es.

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