Brit holiday warning as Spanish hotspot could run out of WATER after surge in visitors & extreme 33C heat
BRIT holidaymakers have been warned a Spanish hotspot could run out of water following a massive surge in visitors and extreme 33C heat.
Menorca's environmental observatory Obsam said residents and tourists needed to reign in their water consumption after reservoirs were found to be "at a very dangerous limit".
Maó City deputy mayor Conxa Juanola said rising tourist numbers, an unrelenting drought and soaring temperatures were a "perfect storm" that turned the island into a "ticking time bomb".
She said: "The situation that we have found at the end of June used to occur at the end of July or in August, the alarms have advanced a month or month and a half."
In Levante and Es Castell, non-essential services have stopped and there has been a review of irrigation in public parks and water flow to sports centres, according to a .
Sonia Estradé, a water technician for Obsam, said: "Levels of consumption are at the limit of sustainability.
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"If we continue to increase consumption we will go under."
In Aigües Sant Lluís, officials are blaming a lack of water on second-home owners returning for the summer and deciding to refill their pools and gardens.
It comes as Spain and Portugal swelter in a new heatwave that has seen vast swathes of the two countries bake in 40C heat.
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The mercury in Spain's southeastern region of Extremedura hit 42C while popular tourist spot Andalusia cooked under 41C, the country's meteorological agency AEMET said.
In neighbouring Portugal, temps soared to 44C over the weekend, fuelling wildfires and vast smoke clouds visible from the capital in Lisbon.
The heatwave began on Sunday and could last "nine or ten days", making it one of the longest to hit the Mediterranean country since 1975, said AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo.
Water reservoirs in Spain stood at 45.3 percent of capacity on Monday, well below the average of 65.7 percent recorded during this period over the past decade.
