The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) anticipates that the Segre basin may leave the emergency situation on September 30 if the conditions in the coming days are favorable, as published in the biweekly preview of the monthly drought report for September.
In this sense, he states that the reserves are still low, but that "thanks to the management" that has been done, the reservoirs of the Rialb-Oliana system already accumulate more water than they had last year at this time. The two reservoirs are at 20.1% of their combined capacity, while a year ago they were just over 9%. If the forecast comes true, the CHE will put an end to the state of emergency that the Segre basin has been dragging on since June 2022, 15 months ago.
The reservoirs in the Segre basin of Rialb and Oliana are currently at 16.9% (68,336 hm³) and 35.3% (29,720 hm³) of their capacity, respectively. Together they add up to 98,084 cubic hectometres, while last year at this time the reserves did not even reach half and were left with 54,497 hm³. While the difference to the Oliana reservoir is just over 1,000 cubic hectometers compared to 2022, Rialb has gone from 16,777 to 68,336 hm³.
The Segre basin entered a state of emergency in June 2022 and ten months later, on April 27, the CHE declared an exceptional situation due to extraordinary drought. At the end of April, the Urgell and Segarra Garrigues canals closed the tap to irrigation in an unprecedented decision, and water was limited to supplies, farms and industry.
At the end of June, the CHE approved allocating extra water reserves of 50 cubic hectometers for irrigators, which served to save fruit trees in exchange for sacrificing forage and cereal crops.
