MADRID - Spain's searing drought has sapped water reserves to record lows for the time of year, threatening supplies to the populous southern regions of Alicante and Murcia, official data showed on Tuesday.
Spain's reservoirs fell by a percentage point in a week to 40.6 percent of capacity, the lowest for the first week of September since readings were first made 10 years ago, the Environment Ministry figures show.
Water levels were 31 percent below the decade's average and below the same point in 2005 -- a year declared the worst for rainfall since records began 147 years ago.
Newspaper El Pais reported on Monday that the Tajo river system was now below the point where water could be transferred to the Segura river basin, which supplies two million people in southeastern Spain.
That means the cities of Alicante and Murcia are set to resort to emergency supplies.
Irrigation water in Murcia and across the south has already been rationed and is likely to reduce the maize crop this year. The power industry is also suffering, as, in a wet year, 12 percent of Spain's electricity comes from hydroelectric plants.
Over the past six weeks, reservoir levels have declined an average 1.3 percent a week.
Hardly any rain fell in the week to Tuesday, although the National Meteorological Institute's three-day forecast on Tuesday predicted a 40 percent chance of light rain in the Segura on Thursday, and more for areas to the north.
Spain had 21,624 cubic hectometres of water in its reservoirs this week -- 413 cubic hectometres less than in the same week a year ago.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
