Salvador Ruiz I Malaga, (EFE) artificial recharge of aquifers and the construction of more infrastructures.
Andreo, director of the Hydrogeology Center of the University of Malaga and member of the Andalusian Drought Experts Committee, has assured, in an interview with EFE, that “when we end a drought, we have less time left for the next drought to come” . Because “it is something inherent to the Mediterranean climate”.
“Moreover, if what the Climate Change Panel says is true. If the forecasts are correct, the droughts will be harsher in the future, more persistent ”, she stated.
Put out fires in winter and plan for droughts
“The (forest) fires are put out in winter by making firebreaks, preparing the forest for when summer arrives. Droughts must be planned and managed ahead of time. Available water resources and reserves must be quantified. Design a network of wells. And have everything prepared so that when the drought arrives we can make use of these groundwater resources ”, she indicated.
The one who was also president of the International Association of Hydrogeologists believes that, in general, there is really no advance planning in time. He rather “we have suddenly encountered the drought and we are back to the way we were in previous times.”
He adds that the drought, as a recurring issue that it is, “should be dealt with comprehensively.” And have a forecast regardless of the political mandates or the color of the party that governs at all times.
Drought home 4 or 5 years
He specifies that “it is quite normal that every 4 or 5 years there is a drought.” Although it is not possible to speak of a periodicity or that it is something cyclical.
Andreo, professor of External Geodynamics at the University of Malaga, has pointed out that “in the state as a whole and in the entire Mediterranean area, especially in Andalusia, there are groundwater resources and reserves. That can be used in cases of need such as the ones we are in now”.
However, he states that “it is necessary to improve knowledge about groundwater bodies. Have well quantified the renewable resources that enter and leave the aquifers each year. And know very well the water reserves that are below the natural discharge points that are the springs. That they are permanently stored there and that can only be extracted by means of probes”.
Pending quantification of water reserves
The resources are relatively well known, although not in all cases, the expert points out. That he explains that “the part of the reserves is yet to be estimated. And they are the ones that, for example in conditions like the ones we are in, in drought, could help to mitigate its effects”.
Warns that the resource figures are not up to date. Therefore, it is convenient to review them, as well as those of the water reserves that could be exploited if necessary. And that there should be a strategic plan with points where to drill boreholes to supply the population in emergency situations.
“In the same way that a state or an autonomous community has strategic reserves of other natural resources, water is an essential resource and it should be well quantified and the strategy for adequate use in conditions of need proposed,” he stresses.
Groundwater for a bearable drought
Groundwater cannot mitigate drought one hundred percent in all places, but rather “can contribute” to making it more bearable, but without thinking that they are infinite resources that can be used at all times.
It warns that if the water reserves are extracted in dry conditions and the aquifers are not allowed to recover when it rains, water will not drain again from the springs because the groundwater level would drop below the springs, and warns that “if we don’t the springs are recovered, the waters will not circulate through the rivers”.
Artificial recharge of aquifers
Bartolomé Andreo has also referred to aquifers, not only as a store of groundwater that can be pumped and extracted, but also to its artificial recharge to “later extract recharged water”, which is known as “managed recharge”, not the one that occurs naturally, but “with human intervention”.
This can be done by means of rafts or boreholes and that experiences could be developed in detrital aquifers in Malaga such as in the Guadalhorce area, in the western sector of the Costa del Sol or in the Vélez river, “either with excess runoff water ” or with the regenerated, purified residuals.
He believes that seawater desalination plants are “a good complement” to supply the population in case of need where resources are not enough, as occurs in places in the southeast of Spain, and gives the examples of the Canary Islands, in addition to Murcia, Almería and the Costa del Sol. EFE