Santa Lucia swamp. /
Saint Lucia, at the beginning of August, was almost at 80% of its capacity, which is an eight and a half month reserve
The situation of the Santa Lucía reservoir, from which nine municipalities are supplied, including Trujillo, for now, is not worrying. In fact, at the beginning of August, it was at almost 80 percent of its capacity, which represents a reserve of eight and a half months, according to sources from the Junta de Extremadura. Despite this, the City Council calls for caution and for responsible consumption, since it is not known how the coming months will unfold in terms of rain.
The mayor of Services, Javier Salor, points out that, since it ceased to be 100%, the Consistory has been taking measures to reduce the use of water. Proof of this is that irrigation schedules have been adjusted and attempts are made to attend to breakdowns as soon as possible. He insists that it is important that the population is aware of consuming as little as possible.
This dam was full until early June. From that moment, that level began to descend. However, sources close to this reservoir recognize that water is always entering from different gorges, unless there is a great drought, which is not the case, at least, at present. “Now what happens is that more is consumed than what enters,” they point out.
The average peak consumption in summer can be around 4,500 cubic meters in the population of Trujillo. That consumption is higher in August than in July. The forecast is that this water cost will drop from September, since it should be less hot and the large number of swimming pools in the city will no longer be used as much, especially since the start of the pandemic, municipal sources point out. . Landscape irrigation will also decrease.
The state of Santa Lucia is not very different from other summers. The problem came in the autumn months, because it did not rain enough. An example of this was in 2019, when it reached 29 percent of its capacity in the month of November. Then the rains came and the worries were over. The worst situation was experienced in 2017. That year, the dam began the fall with less than 50% of water. Little by little it went down, until reaching February 2018 with 30%. From that month the rains returned and it was possible to have 100%, according to data recorded by the Junta de Extremadura.
Beyond the current water needs, the regional Executive has planned the construction of a raft, which allows storing up to 1.2 added cubic hectometres, using the water that overflows from the dam, in the rainy season, as reported in its time from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Sustainability. Therefore, this project will increase 80% of the dam’s capacity. This investment can be around 6.2 million euros.
It must be remembered that, although nine municipalities of Santa Lucía are now supplied, up to 24 localities could take water from this reservoir.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.