Water warnings issued

One of life’s most precious resources, water, is in danger of becoming ever more scarce and ever more polluted in the Canary Islands.
This warning came last month from green group Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción who are trying to highlight the serious deterioration in the archipelago’s aquifers, most especially in the most densely populated islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

This deterioration, coupled with the total abandonment of traditional systems of collecting water, is placing the Canaries in an extremely precarious situation, for future management of this vital resource, say the greens.
Climate change will bring increases in temperatures with summers getting hotter, and a corresponding decrease in rainfall and an increase in evaporation, especially through plants. Not only will it rain less, they say, more of what does fall will be lost through the process of evaporation.
And calls on water in the future longer hotter summers will be all the greater, from the resident population, from the floating tourist population and tourist-related infrastructure like pools and golf courses, and last but not least, from farmers needing more water for their crops.

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