UPDATE: Spanish reservoirs show another increase in capacity this week

UPDATE: Tuesday, November 14 at 8:59 pm 

AS shown by the latest data published by Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition, the country’s reservoirs have shown another increase in capacity in the last seven days.

💧 La reserva hídrica española se encuentra al 43,6% de su capacidad

Los embalses almacenan actualmente 24.414 hm³
» aumentando en la última semana en un 1,8% de la capacidad total actual

Más info: https://t.co/bzXtQwObG2 pic.twitter.com/qMNymVkOtK

— Transición Ecológica y Reto Demográfico (@mitecogob) November 14, 2023

Thanks to the rain that has fallen across much of the territory, another 1,035 cubic hectometers (hm³), has been added to the national supplies, the equivalent of 1.85 per cent more water.

Last week, the reservoirs already exceeded 40 per cent of their capacity, a figure that has now risen to 43.57 per cent, with 24,414 hm³ of water stored. That is 10 percentage points than the same period in 2022.

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UPDATE: Wednesday, November 8 at 0:32 am

THE latest storms in Spain have helped to increase the current capacity of the country’s water supplies to 41.7 per cent of their capacity.

According to the data published this Tuesday, November 7, by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the reservoirs have risen for the third consecutive week and to their highest levels in three months.

These latest figures indicated a rise of 3.8 per cent in the last 7 days, which is equivalent to 2,128 cubic hectometres (hm³). The reserve now stands at  23,379 hm³.

This is also the largest weekly increase recorded in 2023. December 2022 was the last occasion on which such an increase was registered, after a growth of 6.3 per cent in one week thanks to intense rainfall.

How does this compare to 2022?

The current level is 9.3 per cent higher than in the corresponding week of 2022, when the country’s reservoirs held 32.4 per cent of their total.

However, despite the welcoming news, not all of the reservoirs have seen increases. In fact, those of Catalonia currently stand at only 19.2 per cent of their capacity.

A similar situation exists in the Levantine basins, where a drop of 0.5 per cent occurred, going down to 21.3 per cent. The Júcar supply also fell by 0.1 points to 46.5 per cent.

Some of the southern reservoirs are also struggling, such as Mediterránea Andaluza. It dropped by 0.4 points to 21.4 per cent while the Guadalete-Barbate supply continues to be the lowest in Spain, containing just 15 per cent of its capacity.

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Tuesday, October 24 at 0:54 am

THANKS to the recent rainfall, Spain’s reservoirs are slowly recovering their levels.

During the last week, storms Babet, Celine and Bernard all made their way across the country bringing a large amount of much-needed rain to the water supplies.

With the current drought situation that Spain is experiencing, for the second consecutive week, these abundant downpours have helped to alleviate the problem slightly and allowed the reserve to breathe and improve its data.

The figures published by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition this Tuesday, October 31, confirmed that the dammed water supplies in Spain have registered an increase of 2.33 per cent in the last seven days.

That is the equivalent of 1,306 more cubic hectometers (hm³) of water, which brings the reserve to 37.92 per cent of its capacity this week, with a total of 21,251 hm³

As confirmed by the government department, this increase is also the largest increase in one week that the reservoirs have recorded in 10 months.

💧 La reserva hídrica española se encuentra al 37,9% de su capacidad

Los embalses almacenan actualmente 21.251 hm³
» aumentando en la última semana en un 2,3% de la capacidad total actual

Más info: https://t.co/mpLaYGuC0y pic.twitter.com/R5QSCyyoke

— Transición Ecológica y Reto Demográfico (@mitecogob) October 31, 2023

When did the last notable increase in capacity occur?

The last notable increase occurred in December 2022 when the reservoirs experienced a rise of 6.3 per cent as a result of Storm Efrain.

This week’s rains have considerably affected the entire mainland the ministry explained. The maximum accumulation was recorded in Vigo, for the second consecutive week, with 286.1 litres/m² registered.

Last Tuesday 24, the same water supply showed a slight rise of 1 per cent, bringing an end to four months of downward trend.

Despite the reported increase, the situation across the country still remains quite worrying. A review of the figures from recent years is enough to show the reality of the problem.

The average for same week in the last ten years stands at 48.03 per cent of the total capacity, with 26,915 hm³, numbers that are unattainable today.

However, the situation was even worse last year. At this same point in 2022, the reserve stood at 32.19 per cent of its capacity and had 18,038 hm³, that is 5.7 percentage points and 3,213 hm³ less than the current one.

Which supplies remained the same as last week?

Although the numbers as a whole have managed to rise, there are basins in the mainland that have not been able to take advantage of the rainfall and remain at the same levels as last week. Others continue to show even worse data.

This is the case, for example, of the Segura basin, which fell 0.5 per cent this week to 21.8 per cent. The same situation occurred with the internal Catalan basins, which decreased by 0.4 per cent to stand at 19.5 per cent.

Similarly, the Andalucian Mediterranean supply also fell by 0.3 per cent to 21.9 per cent, and the Júcar basin dropped by 0.2 per cent to 46.6 per cent.

Which reservoir had the biggest increase?

In a more positive way, the increase in Galicia Costa stands out, where an increase of 16.7 per cent in one week took place, raising its capacity to 78.8 per cent.

Also noteworthy is the figure for the Western Cantabrian Sea, which rose by 10.7 per cent and stands at 82 per cent, making it the reservoir that presents the best data in all of Spain.

Among those that remained at the same levels were the Eastern Cantabrian reservoir, which stayed at 75.3 per cent of its capacity, as did the internal supplies of the Basque Country, which remain at 66.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Guadalete-Barbate reservoir, which has been stuck at 15.1 per cent of its capacity for two weeks, continues to be the one with the worst data in the country.