Facing a Future of Drought, Spain Turns to Medieval Solutions and ‘Ancient Wisdom’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Acequias, a network of water channels created by the Moors over 1,000 years ago, are being excavated and brought back to life to adapt to the crises of climate change.

High in Spain’s southern mountains, 40 or so people armed with pitchforks and spades cleared stones and piles of grass from an earthwork channel built centuries ago and still keeping the slopes green.

“It’s a matter of life,” said Antonio Jesús Rodríguez García, a farmer from the nearby village of Pitres, population 400. “Without this water, the farmers can’t grow anything, the village can’t survive.”

The extreme heat sweeping across much of southern Europe this week is just the latest reminder of the challenges that climate change has foisted on Spain, where temperatures reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, putting half of the territory on orange and red weather alert. Such heat and extended droughts have presented the threat that three-quarters of the country could be engulfed by creeping deserts over this century.

Faced with that reality, Spanish farmers, volunteers and researchers have reached deep into history for solutions, turning to a sprawling network of irrigation canals built by the Moors, the Muslim population that conquered and settled in the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. » | Constant Méheut* | Wednesday, July 19, 2023

* Constant Méheut spent two days reporting from the villages of Pitres and Cañar, in the Alpujarra mountains, in southern Spain.

‘The Country Is Becoming a Desert’: Drought-struck Spain Is Running Out of Water

FRANCE 24: Spain is running out of water. After a long and painful drought, the country has been hit by an unusually early heat wave, evaporating even more of the "blue gold" it still has left in its reservoirs. While farmers fear for their survival, environmentalists say it is time for “Europe’s back garden” to rethink how it uses and manages its increasingly scarce water supply.

There’s an expression in Spain: “En Abril, aguas mil” – April will bring the rains. Only this year, it didn't. The month of April was the driest month on record, and several Spanish cities registered their highest April temperatures yet. In Cordoba, the mercury rose to 38.7°C (almost 102°F) at one point, and in the province of Seville in Andalusia to 37.8°C.

Coming on the heels of a long-term drought and an unusually warm and dry winter, the latest heat wave has sparked a real fear of shortages. » | Cyrielle CABOT | Saturday, May 13, 2023

Critically Low Water Levels on Lake Garda

Aug 12, 2022 Italy's worst drought in decades has caused the water level of the country's largest lake to fall sharply and reduce in size. At Sirmione, in the southernmost part of Lake Garda, rocky "beaches" have emerged where the water usually is - enabling tourists to stroll and sunbathe.

California ‘Crippling Drought’ Leads to Strict Water Restrictions – BBC News

Jun 1, 2022 • Strict water restrictions come into force for millions of people in California as the US west coast continues to experience a crippling drought.

Many predict will get even worse during the summer.

People in the state's agricultural heartland, who have been struggling with water shortages and contamination for years, say it’s time for people in metropolitan areas to conserve water and do their part.

Italy Issues Alarm Over Prolonged Drought

Swathes of southern Europe are facing record heatwaves and prolonged drought. Many areas of Spain and Italy have had to deal with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius. Italian authorities have issued “red alarm” risk warnings for 26 cities. Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports.

Inside Story Americas – Extreme Weather: Linked to Climate Change?
Extreme weather has gripped much of the United States recently and thousands of heat records have been broken. At least 46 deaths have been linked to the July heat wave alone. A study released this week shows that the last 12 months have been the warmest on record for the US mainland. And these numbers do not even include July's high temperatures. In late June, a violent weather system left more than a dozen people dead and millions without power for days across several states. Most of the country is suffering from moderate to extreme drought, creating conditions ideal for raging wildfires.

Spain's Drought: A Glimpse of Our Future?
THE INDEPENDENT: Barcelona is in the grip of a climate crisis on a scale never seen before in modern-day Europe. And now this parched city is being forced to import supplies from France

Barcelona is a dry city. It is dry in a way that two days of showers can do nothing to alleviate. The Catalan capital's weather can change from one day to the next, but its climate, like that of the whole Mediterranean region, is inexorably warming up and drying out. And in the process this most modern of cities is living through a crisis that offers a disturbing glimpse of metropolitan futures everywhere.

Its fountains and beach showers are dry, its ornamental lakes and private swimming pools drained and hosepipes banned. Children are now being taught how to save water as part of their school day. This iconic, avant-garde city is in the grip of the worst drought since records began and is bringing the climate crisis that has blighted cities in Australia and throughout the Third World to Europe. A resource that most Europeans have grown up taking for granted now dominates conversation. Nearly half of Catalans say water is the region's main problem, more worrying than terrorism, economic slowdown or even the populists' favourite – immigration.

The political battles now breaking out here could be a foretaste of the water wars that scientists and policymakers have warned us will be commonplace in the coming decades. The emergency water-saving measures Barcelona adopted after winter rains failed for a second year running have not been enough. The city has had to set up a "water bridge" and is shipping in water for the first time in the history of this great maritime city. Spain's Drought: A Glimpse of Our Future? >>> By Elizabeth Nash | May 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
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