Medieval church re-emerges as Spain ships in water
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Perhaps the most striking image of Spain's drought, so severe it has forced Barcelona to ship in water, has been that of the underwater church which emerged from a drying dam.
For most of the past four decades, all that has been visible of the village of Sant Roma has been the belltower of its stone church, peeping above the water beside forested hills from a valley flooded in the 1960s to provide water for the Catalonia region.
This year, receding waters have exposed the 11th-century church completely, attracting crowds of tourists who stand gazing around it on the dusty bed of the reservoir.
Neighboring Vilanova de Sau is enjoying a tourist boom, its mayor Joan Riera says.
"Every time it's on television, a whole lot of people come," Riera told Reuters by telephone, adding that this was all very well but it had made it impossible to find a table in the town's restaurants: "They all want to eat at the same time."
Drying dams are causing problems still more serious in Barcelona, the region's glamorous capital, which has had to charter ships to bring in drinking water.
After proverbial April showers, reservoirs are now about 25 percent full but will have to provide for a hot, dry summer, so emergency measures may only have been delayed.
For now, the short-term outlook is tolerable. But officials said that without shipped water and a campaign to cut water waste, the city could face its first cut in domestic water supplies since 1953.
"If it doesn't rain and if we hadn't implemented solutions, then Barcelona would be facing supply cuts. But the signs are that work in progress and management measures will work perfectly," said city council environment manager Jordi Campillo.
MORE FREQUENT DROUGHTS?
The tanker vessel Sichem Defender docked at Barcelona on May 13 carrying 19,000 tonnes of water from the southern Catalan town of Tarragona: overall, ships will provide 6 percent of the drinking water for 5.5 million people over the summer, as authorities bring in 10 boatloads from Tarragona, Marseille, and a desalination plant in southern Spain.
The total cost is estimated at 40 million euros ($61.96 million), including 32.5 million for port infrastructure to handle the water.
Ships are a stopgap solution, and while they will quench citizens' thirst for a few months, authorities fear increasingly frequent drought around the Mediterranean might require more permanent measures.
A hosepipe ban has been in force for months in Spain's second city, fountains have been dry and arguments have broken out with other regions over how to share out increasingly scarce water.
The regions of Valencia and Murcia have threatened to complain to the Constitutional Court about a controversial 180 million euro pipeline from the river Ebro delta, due to supply Barcelona from October. Continued...
