The water situation in Tenerife has eased up a fair bit, which will come as a relief to anyone connected to farming on the island.
Valentín González, the councillor for the Primary Sector at the Cabildo, said on Monday 9 March that the island’s irrigation water reserves have now reached 70% of total capacity. The reservoirs managed by BALTEN are currently holding 3,538,744 cubic metres of water.
That’s not a small improvement either.
According to González, this gives Tenerife a much stronger footing for planning the agricultural season ahead. Compared with February, reserves are up by 180,434 cubic metres, and compared with the same point last year, they’re nearly a million cubic metres higher.
So yes, better news for a change.
Even so, the Cabildo isn’t exactly cracking open the champagne. Although the island formally ended its water emergency status in the final week of February, the message now is still one of caution. González made it clear that people should keep the current water-saving measures in place and continue using supplies sensibly.
Which, to be fair, makes perfect sense. Just because things look healthier doesn’t mean anyone should start behaving as if Tenerife has suddenly turned into Scotland.
Looking at the island more closely, the north is holding the biggest share of the reserves, with around 2.3 million cubic metres. In the south, the reservoirs are storing 1.18 million cubic metres, which puts the southern infrastructure at 73.6% of its capacity.
There’s also ongoing work being done to improve the storage network itself. The Valle San Lorenzo reservoir is currently out of service while structural maintenance is carried out. Right now they’re cleaning the bottom and removing sludge, which sounds like exactly the sort of glamorous job nobody grows up dreaming about.
That work has to be finished before they can move on to re-waterproofing the geomembrane, which is one of those unexciting but very necessary jobs that helps keep the reservoir efficient and watertight in the years ahead.
So, all in all, the picture is better than it was. Not perfect. Not panic over. But definitely better…more info here