The Pain of Spain: Overtourism and Drought

A serious illness has hit Spain, forcing tourists and residents to queue for drinking water. Activists cite mass tourism and climate change as the main causes.

Reporting from An independent UK on Friday (23/8/2024), severe drought occurred in several towns on the Costa Blanca. This situation makes public drinking water facilities unusable.

Tourists and residents there have to queue at distribution points to get bottled drinking water. Bottled drinking water is distributed free of charge.

As water levels drop, salinity increases, to the extent that authorities in some areas consider tap water unsafe to drink or cook with.

“Overdevelopment, climate change and mass tourism during the summer months when popular Mediterranean destinations are overpopulated have exacerbated the problem,” campaigners say.

In the Marina Alta region, north of the provincial capital Alicante, water consumption jumped to 19.67 billion liters in July from 2.3 billion liters in January.

There are almost 38,000 swimming pools in the area, or one for every five people, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The average for all of Spain is one pool for every 35 people.

The lack of water has forced city councils to restrict activities such as filling swimming pools, or watering gardens and washing cars during the day.

“We have entered a climate crisis,” Joan Sala of the environmental group Accio Ecologista-Agro told Reuters.

He said the rainfall was poor in the northern part of the Alicante region, even though the region received half the normal level of rain last year and only 10% of the average level so far this year.

“There needs to be a little more vision, because now in the summer there are more people here than in the winter,” said Fernando Sapena, a resident who owns the restaurant El Raco De L’arros in the town of Teulada-Moraira, which specializes in paella, a rice-based dish from Valencia.

Traditionally, Valencians combine the special taste of local paella with the mineral-rich water on tap there.

The drought has also cost the region’s agricultural sector more than 65 million euros, the farmers’ association ASAJA said in July.

Meanwhile, last week heavy rain hit the Balearic islands in Spain. The roads were flooded and residents had to leave. Spain’s emergency military unit said it had been sent to Mallorca to contain the situation.

Spain’s national weather agency, AEMET, maintained an orange warning on Thursday across the region due to the high risk of storms, after previously downgrading from red.

(bl/fem)