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There is a saying in Spain that during a drought, the trees chase after the dogs. Now it is ringing true as the country struggles to deal with the worst drought since the forties: reservoirs stand at 46 per cent of capacity and rainfall over the past 18
months has been 40 per cent below average.
But months before the scorching summer sun threatens to reduce supplies to a trickle, a bitter political battle is raging over how to manage Spain's scarcest resource - water.
Catalonia, in the parched north east, has been worst affected, with reservoirs standing at just a fifth of capacity.
Faced with the prospect of having to cut supplies, authorities in Barcelona have brought in hitherto unheard of fines of €30 ($59) for watering gardens or €3000 for filling swimming pools over 300sq m.
Municipal fountains, some lit up at night for tourists, are empty. Beach showers have been turned off.
In an emergency measure, the Catalan regional government plans to ship in water from one of Spain's driest regions, Almeria in the south-east, and from Marseille in France. It may bring in more water by train.
The crisis has forced the fiercely nationalist Catalans, who like to see themselves as separate from Spaniards, into a humiliating plea to Madrid.
Jose Montilla, Socialist President of the Catalan regional government, had hoped that water would be transferred to Catalonia from the river Segre in neighbouring Aragon. But Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero refused, even taking time out from the Nato summit in Bucharest last week to deny there was a "water war" with Catalonia.
Zapatero prefers the costlier solution of shipping in water in tankers or trains to diverting it from other rivers to the Ebro, which supplies most of Catalonia. Experts say that, despite three years of drought, Spain should have enough water for everyone. But the latest row reveals that no one can agree how to share it.
Zapatero's Socialist Government believes the answer lies in a controversial series of desalination plants. Spain already has 950 desalination plants which produce 2 million cu m of water a day, enough to supply 10 million people.
But the Spanish Association for the Technological Treatment of Water says that each desalination plant indirectly produces one million tonnes of CO2 a year. Supporters say that, while they may be costly and produce high emissions, diverting rivers causes more damage to animal life by introducing new species like the zebra mussel, which has been blamed for damaging river eco-systems.
But the right-wing opposition Popular Party supports diverting river courses, claiming it does less environmental damage.
Angel Cajigas, president of the Water Treatment Association, said: "Despite their problems, [desalination plants] produce an unlimited amount of water, can adapt to demand and reduce concern about supplies."
But ecologists say that, in a country where water is cheap compared with how much it costs its neighbours, Spaniards do not value the resource and much is lost due to outdated, leaking drainage systems.
Alberto Fernandez, head of water for WWF, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said: "We should raise the price of water, which is very cheap. We need better systems of storage and distribution and to create banks of water, so we could buy and sell the rights to it."
Edelmiro Rua Alvarez, of the College of Engineers, says: "Spain has enough water for everyone. We shouldn't be at each others' throats every year. In five years, we shouldn't be wrangling over this again."
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