Rainfall in Spain was below average in the water year just ended after the worst drought in more than a century last year, official figures showed on Tuesday. Spain logged 595 millimetres of rain in the year to the end of September, or 11 percent less than the historical average. Rainfall below average officially qualifies as drought. "This is the second consecutive dry year and follows 2004-5 in which we accumulated a national shortfall of 250 millimetres," the Meteorogical Institute said.

The shortfall in the latest year was 75 millimetres and the countrys reservoirs are now less than 40 percent full. Rainfall in many parts of the country was at least 25 percent below average, while in a few it was above average. Water rationing is the responsibility of local governments and water boards. Irrigation for farming has been restricted this year in many parts of the country, but consumers have faced few curbs.

In Madrid, for example, a ban on watering gardens and filling swimming pools was lifted at the beginning of the summer. Farmers suffered from a dry spring. May was the driest month of the year and recorded record high temperatures for the month. Summer rainfall was negligible, but that is normal for Spain. The Environment Ministry also published data for the last week on Tuesday, showing water levels nationally at 39 percent of capacity, down from 39.2 percent last week, and well below the 10-year average of 51.0 percent.

In a normal year around 12 percent of Spain s power comes from hydroelectric generation, but that fell to 8 percent last year and was one of the reasons Spains carbon dioxide emissions rose, taking the country even further away from its Kyoto greenhouse gas target. The climate change models used by the Environment Ministry show Spain s interior is likely to become drier and hotter as the amount of carbon dioxide in the worlds atmosphere increases.
(Planet Ark, 04/10/2006)