"We are in an extreme situation. It's not about being alarming, it's about being realistic", said Juan Manuel Moreno (known as Juanma Moreno), in an intervention before the Commission of Experts on Drought created by the regional government (Junta de Andalucía).

Water storage in some areas of Andalusia is below 15% of capacity, after months of limited rain, and 500,000 people in the region already have a limited supply. If precipitation levels do not change, there will be restrictions on human consumption in large cities (such as Seville or Malaga) before the start of summer, said Juanma Moreno.

Andalusia is also preparing all ports in the region to "in case of extreme need" transport water on ships from other points (which it did not specify), to guarantee supply to the entire population, he added.

The president of the Junta de Andalucía recalled that the region, in addition to being one of the great tourist destinations in Spain and Europe in the summer, with towns on the coast that triple the population, is also the country's "greatest agricultural power" and "produces food for 500 million people" in different countries.

Juanma Moreno announced the approval of a regional decree on January 29 with 50 million euros in direct aid to farmers and another 150 million for structural works related to water management, stressing several times that the drought that the autonomous community is experiencing can only be resolved with measures for an immediate response to the current urgency, but it is a structural problem.

“Water transfers”

It was in this context that he called for the channelling of European funds to the region specifically for works related to water management infrastructure and greater involvement of the central government of Spain, advocating for more transfers and transfers between Spanish rivers, but also for the study of transfers "between countries ", namely, from Portugal.

It is not the first time that Andalusian leaders have spoken about the possibility of asking Portugal for water, which would depend on contact between the governments of the two countries.

Last December, Juanma Moreno even said that the regional government was closing a project that would allow water to be transported from Portugal.

Lusa contacted the Portuguese Ministry of Environment and Climate Action at the time about this project, and a source from the press office responded that "relations with Spain must follow what is defined by the Albufeira Convention" (which regulates the management of rivers shared between both countries).

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