Campo faces water restrictions amid drought concerns

Restrictions to potable water supply in the Campo de Gibraltar will start on Wednesday night amid mounting concern about falling reserves due to a lack of rainfall.

The measure will affect around 278,000 people from eight municipalities.

The president of the Mancomunidad de Municipios del Campo de Gibraltar, Susana Pérez Custodio, announced the decision during a press conference on Monday.

She said restrictions would be applied in two time slots.

The first slot will occur between 6am and 11pm, during which there will be a slight reduction in water pressure.

Residents of the Campo should not notice this as it is in line with earlier pressure reductions applied in recent months due to the absence of rain.

The second time slot, between 11pm and 6am, will lead to a "drastic" drop in pressure, meaning a trickle of water at best or a total absence of supply at worst, depending on the geographical location of the house or workplace.

Locations situated in higher areas, both geographically and in terms of building height, will suffer lower pressure than those in lower areas, always in relation to the supply reservoir.

This situation is due to severe drought and serious water reserve shortages in the Campo de Gibraltar, where the two reservoirs that supply water to the populations are at 29.1% capacity in Guadarranque and 17% in Charco Redondo.

José Manuel Alcántara, General Director of Arcgisa, the public company responsible for water management in Campo de Gibraltar, explained that the aim of these measures is to reduce water consumption in the region by 20% in order to cope with the drought situation.

Starting this Wednesday, new restrictions on the use of potable water established by the Junta de Andalucía will also come into effect.

These are directed at the irrigation of public and private parks and gardens, cleaning of public and private roads, ornamental fountains, public showers and fountains, filling of private pools, and washing of vehicles outside authorised establishments.