Reservoirs now contain enough water for 'three years'

Guadarranque reservoir, Castellar,
on a sunny day before the rain

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR The Mancomunidad water company, ARCGISA, yesterday announced that calculations resulting from recent rainfall said that there is enough water in the aquifers and reservoirs for the next three years. A reliable private source told us yesterday that some 250 millimeters of rain had come down in San Pablo over the previous eight days. The water company declared that the reservoirs at Guadarranque (Castellar) and Charco Redondo (Los Barrios), which supply all of the Campo except Tarifa, contained a combined total of 146.71 cubic hectolitres (hL3). The Almodóvar reservoir that supplies Tarifa is at 90% of capacity with 5.17 hL3. Based on an annual consumption of between 55 and 57 hL3, says the company, this is a reserve for the next two and a half years, which, added to alternative supply from the aquifer wells of San Roque-Castellar and the Guadiaro-Guadarranque Canal diversion, would be sufficient to supply the area for approximately the next three even if it doesn't rain at all. Reservoir dams near Jerez had to be opened earlier in the week because they were in danger of overflowing.