Prolonged drought takes hold of Mediterranean region – Technologist

The parishioners of Perpignan once again turned to Saint Galdric, patron saint of the Catalans, to try to encourage rain in the Pyrénées-Orientales region. On Sunday, March 10, for the second year running, they organized a procession through the city’s streets. In the far south of France, as throughout the western Mediterranean basin, drought has taken hold.

Meteorological records are unlikely to ease general concerns. “Twenty-two months with a precipitation deficit since the start of 2022: The Pyrénées-Orientales region is experiencing a drought of historic duration and intensity, the most severe since records began in 1959,” said Simon Mittelberger, a climatologist at Météo-France, the national forecaster. “The winter of 2023-2024 was even drier than the previous one, recording a 55% deficit.”

Across North Africa to Italy, through the Algarve in southern Portugal, along the entire eastern coast of Spain, including the Balearic Islands, the far south of France, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta and extending to Crete, the situation is clear: The current situation is not the result of an exceptional episode linked to record temperatures – though the past three months stand out as the warmest winter ever recorded globally – but rather a long-term phenomenon.

A series of water restrictions

Southern Europe is experiencing its second consecutive dry year; Morocco is facing its sixth with little or no rainfall. The average reservoir level there barely reaches 23%. The country’s second-largest reservoir, Al-Massira, which serves the Casablanca region, is almost empty. In mid-February, Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka declared that, since September 2023, rainfall had been 70% below average, prompting a ban on using drinking water for purposes such as watering parks and cleaning streets.

The Algarve region, Sardinia and Sicily have also tightened restrictions in towns and gardens. Catalonia in northern Spain, which is facing its “worst drought in a century,” according to regional government president Pere Aragonès, has been under a state of emergency since February 1, leading to a series of restrictions on resource consumption. Barcelona is preparing to go as far as Valencia to fetch fresh water by boat, and is in the process of building two large seawater desalination plants to supply its residents. Across North Africa, governments are also unveiling similar infrastructural projects (eight plants in Morocco, seven in Tunisia) and implementing water transfers between regions facing different levels of water scarcity.

You have 65.95% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.