Spain logs second year of drought

MADRID, Oct 4 (Reuters) Rainfall in Spain was below average in the water year just ended after the worst drought in more than a century last year, official figures showed.

Spain logged yesterday 595 millimetres of rain in the year to the end of September, or 11 percent less than the historical average.

Rainfall below average officially qualifies as drought.

''This is the second consecutive dry year and follows 2004-5 in which we accumulated a national shortfall of 250 millimetres,'' the Meteorogical Institute said.

The shortfall in the latest year was 75 millimetres and the country's reservoirs are now less than 40 percent full.

Rainfall in many parts of the country was at least 25 per cent below average, while in a few it was above average.

Water rationing is the responsibility of local governments and water boards. Irrigation for farming has been restricted this year in many parts of the country, but consumers have faced few curbs.

In Madrid, for example, a ban on watering gardens and filling swimming pools was lifted at the beginning of the summer.

Farmers suffered from a dry spring. May was the driest month of the year and recorded record high temperatures for the month. Summer rainfall was negligible, but that is normal for Spain.

The Environment Ministry also published data for the last week, showing water levels nationally at 39 per cent of capacity, down from 39.2 per cent last week, and well below the 10-year average of 51.0 per cent.

In a normal year around 12 per cent of Spain's power comes from hydroelectric generation, but that fell to 8 per cent last year and was one of the reasons Spain's carbon dioxide emissions rose, taking the country even further away from its Kyoto greenhouse gas target.

The climate change models used by the Environment Ministry show Spain's interior is likely to become drier and hotter as the amount of carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere increases.

REUTERS PDM RAI1010