Seven figures that explain how the drought gradually consumes Andalusia

The drought has become a recurring theme in citizens' conversations, despite the fact that the candidates in the last general elections tiptoed over a growing problem. In Andalusia they know it well. Beyond the figures that the headlines constantly illustrate, there are other minor data that help explain the complicated situation that many Andalusians are suffering.. Numbers that show the severity of a lack of precipitation that has already led several towns to surrender to their beliefs and take the saints out into the streets to invoke the rain.

100 municipalities

More than a hundred of the 785 municipalities in the Andalusian region currently have some type of water saving measure. From the most severe, which include power cuts, to more lax ones, such as reducing the pressure of beach showers. These more than 100 localities represent approximately 2.5% of those that the community has.

8.78%

This is the percentage of the capacity that the La Viñuela reservoir currently has, the largest in Malaga and which supplies a large part of the La Axarquía region, an area in whose economy fruit and vegetable crops have a great weight. The 14.43 cubic hectometres that are dammed represent a historical minimum and experts do not rule out that it may dry up or that the water may not be suitable for consumption as the level falls.

2,000,000 wages

Jaen olive growers have stopped entering more than 1,000 million euros in the 2022-2023 campaign due to the drop in production associated with the lack of rain. A circumstance that led to the loss of two million wages, which translates into 150 million euros less received by the 3,500 people who make up the workforce of the Jaén olive industry, according to reports from the Agri-food Cooperatives of the province and the CCOO unions. and UGT.

What is worrying is that these organizations affirm that this situation will be repeated in the next campaign, in which they predict that another 40% of employment will be lost and the province will be, for the second time in a row, below 200,000 tons of olive oil produced.. The 44.6 degrees that were registered on July 10 in Loja (Granada) are proof of the severe heat wave that hit the southern half of the country, and that they were three less than those registered in the summer of 2021 in the Cordoba municipality of Montoro. But there is a piece of information that, despite being lower, may be more representative of the current situation. They are the 34.1 degrees that were registered in Malaga at dawn on July 20.

It was something that had not happened since there were records —1942— and at that time, according to the records, only 30 degrees have been exceeded eight times. All of them from 2010 to the present.

6 hours a week

In Andalusia there are twenty municipalities with water cuts and Casabermeja (Málaga) is one of the most affected. They have had supply restrictions for two months, although they have worsened in recent times due to the lack of rain that the province has been dragging for months. In rural areas, they only receive water for about six hours a week; while in the urbanizations it is five and a half hours a day: from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.. In local places like Los Mellizos and Arroyo Carniceros there are cuts every other day.

27 locations

Are the Andalusian municipalities without drinking water today. Many of them are located in the Valle de los Pedroches and the Guadiato Region, both in Córdoba.. The problem is that the reservoir from which they are supplied —La Colada— has reduced its capacity so much that the water it still has is not suitable for consumption..

6,776 million euros

Despite the severe drought, which notably affects production, exports have not suffered as much and Andalusia accounted for 22.7% of national sales abroad of agri-food products during the first five months of the year. Billing was 6,776 million in this sector.

The affectation of the lack of water to foreign trade materialized in the 3% that exports were reduced with respect to the same period last year.