It is a Catalan lake, called the Sau reservoir, known to kayaking, water skiing and paddle aficionados, on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. Usually, it is fun to see the tip of a bell tower protruding from the surface, the only visible trace of the village of Sant Roma, which was submerged in 1962, during the construction of the dam. In the summer of 2022, the church went viral on Instagram. Due to the drought, the level of the lake dropped by ten meters and the monument church found itself in the open air, becoming a very popular selfie spot.
But this winter, not a single drop of rain fell and the church kept its feet dry. Never seen. The reservoir supposed to supply Barcelona and its region is only filled to 9% of its capacity, testifying to the drama unfolding in Catalonia. A historic drought, the premises of which had been observed as early as autumn 2020, throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
When drought increases climate change
The authorities are panicking, especially since Spain, on the front line of global warming in Europe, experienced the hottest month of April since the first records, established in the 1950s. in Cordoba, the thermometer approached 40 degrees on April 27, “15 to 20 degrees more than normal”, underlines the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet). The drought map shows this clearly, the most affected regions are Andalusia, Murcia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia.
According to a study by the Polytechnic University of Barcelona published on April 25, just before this unprecedented heatwave episode, the number of days of the year with summer temperatures fell in the country from 90 in 1971 to 145 in 2022. First consequence the spectacular drop in the level of dams (26% filling on average in the most affected areas): hydroelectricity production has fallen by 40%, calculates the Sustainability Observatory, leading to increased use of electricity of gas origin and, consequently, to a significant increase in CO2 emissions.
Worse: the current drought, caused in the opinion of scientists by climate change, further increases it. Because of the drying up of dams, but also because of the increasing use of seawater desalination to make up for the shortage of freshwater resources. According to the website Ecotoxicologie.frthe process already rejects, in Spain, “several thousand tons of CO2 per day”, because the transformation of seawater into drinking water is very energy-intensive.
Unfortunately, this is the only solution Barcelona have found. Since 2009, the city has had the largest factory of its kind in Europe. Last summer, it produced up to 140 million liters per day. The Catalan government has decided to double its capacity by 2027 and to build several other factories on the coast. More generally, the Spanish state wants to increase seawater desalination capacity by 25% in the south and east of the peninsula.
Agricultural production is collapsing
Another painful effect of the drought: the additional inflation caused by the collapse of agricultural production. Spain, the vegetable garden of Europe, currently sees 60% of agricultural land “asphyxiated” by the lack of rainfall, said the Coordination of Farmers’ and Breeders’ Organizations (COAG) in mid-April, which predicts a carnage in the orchards and “irreversible losses on more than 3.5 million hectares of cereals”.
In Catalonia, the Urgell canal has been closed to farmers, so that 50,000 hectares can no longer be irrigated. Near Toledo, 300,000 hectares are no longer irrigated. The Sanchez government has just promised a tax cut of 1.8 billion euros for farmers and has requested the activation of the crisis reserve of the common agricultural policy (CAP).
This breeds resentment towards Ukraine, as half of the European Union’s emergency reserves for 2023 have already been used to offset the rising cost of raw materials caused by the Russian invasion, and to support the agriculture in eastern countries indirectly affected by the war.
Additionally, the price of Ukrainian sunflower oil is soaring due to the conflict, sparking a run on Spanish olive oil, the price of which has risen 60% since June 2022. How high will they go? In the Guadalquivir Valley, drought threatens the olive harvest with a 50% drop in yield, like last year. Except this time, the very survival of the trees is at stake.