Walter Finch
THE incredible turnaround in Spain’s struggling reservoir levels has been captured in stunning ‘before and after’ shots.
Costa del Sol local Francisco Ruiz (@Francis46309660) captured images of the Limonero reservoir that supplies drinking water to Malaga city taken ten months apart – and the transformation is incredible.
The lake has jumped from just 9% full to 41% in the space of just a week, having received over seven million litres of rain.
When the ‘before’ photo was taken in July last year, Limonero was standing around 18% full, indicating that the pair of photos, stunning as they are, do not fully capture the remarkable recovery.
READ MORE: Storm Konrad heads to Spain: Yet more rain and snow to affect majority of the country
Further north, photographer Jesus Gutierrez (@Gutiserra) took photos of the reservoir at Ponton de la Oliva, north of Madrid on the border with Guadalajara, taken just three months apart.
The images show a luscious green valley transformed into a heaving lake just a couple of metres from overflowing the dam.
The pair of before-and-after images encapsulate the kiss of life that Spain’s reservoirs have received, with drought-stricken Andalucia enjoying a 43% recovery in the last seven days.
Lake Vinuela in Malaga, which was just 7.8% at this time last year, is now 22% full, while Casasola reservoir, near Malaga, has almost doubled from 27% to 50% in a year.
Some reservoirs were even forced to release water ahead of further rainfall forecast, as they lack the facilities to transfer their precious resource to other lakes.
The Conde de Guadalhorce and La Concepcion reservoirs both had to open emergency valves as they became around 90% full at the weekend.
Meanwhile, a new water pipeline that will permit the transfer of overflow from the Gibralmedina reservoir to the Campo de Gibraltar was opened this week.
READ MORE: Watch: Flood chaos on Spain’s Costa del Sol after night of heavy rain – with DAYS of showers to come
Storm Konrad is the latest weatherfront to batter Spain in the coming days as further rainfall is expected.
Forecasters are warning that some areas could see rainfall exceeding 150mm in the coming days, especially around the Strait of Gibraltar and the Sierra de Grazalema.
And yet another storm system is anticipated to arrive from the southwest by Monday, bringing renewed rainfall from west to east.
It is part of a meteorological battle taking place over Europe between competing air masses that has left western Europe cold and wet and eastern Europe enjoying an early summer.
Taking Germany and Italy as the dividing line, countries to the east including Greece and Romania have been basking in temperatures as much as 10C above the norm for the time of year.
To provide a full picture of how reservoir’s are doing would show great disparity. Murcia and Almeria are still below the levels regarded as “safe”.