The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, has presented the updated report on the drought situation to the Council of Ministers. The Report states that we have entered a multi-year dry cycle as a result of the decrease in contributions compared to the normal ones for the same period, with the aggravating factor that the current hydrological year comes from a tremendously dry one.

The evolution that is taking place in the face of the lack of rainfall is manifested most harshly in the basins of the Tagus, Guadiana, Guadalquivir, Segura, Júcar and Andalusian Mediterranean Basins, especially very worrying in the areas of the Segura, Júcar, headwaters of the Tagus, Guadalquivir and Andalusian Mediterranean Basins.

The low level of stored reserves will make it more difficult to avoid restrictions on urban consumption, something that the Government achieved in the last hydrological year 2004-2005 during which, thanks to the emergency works carried out by the Ministry of the Environment – more than 200 million euros – and the commissioning of desalination plants in Murcia, Almeria and Malaga, there were no restrictions on the use of water in the cities.

On the other hand, the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture have accelerated their investments in irrigation modernization throughout Spain and, especially, in the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia. It should be borne in mind that if the irrigation modernisation programme planned since 1995, i.e. since the end of the previous drought, had been carried out diligently, at least 20% more water would now be available in our reservoirs and aquifers.

The Government also welcomes the agreement reached yesterday between the irrigators of the Tagus and the irrigators of the Segura, –possible thanks to the application of Royal Decree-Law 15/2005, of 16 December, on urgent measures for the regulation of transactions of rights to the use of water, and the promotion of the Environment– by which the former transfer their rights to the latter for a total volume of 30 hm³ of water, without affecting the situation of the reservoirs at the head of the Tagus. Over the next few months, other reassignments of water rights are expected to be added to those agreed, for example in the case of the Community of Madrid, where there is already an agreement to reallocate a total of 100 hm³ from Unión Fenosa’s concession on the Alberche River, within the 200 hm³ that the Government of the Nation is offering to the Community of Madrid and which also include the availability of water purified water, the construction of wells in the Guadarrama and other reassignments of water rights to guarantee human consumption of water in the region.