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Date Published: 08/05/2024

ALL swimming pools in Malaga and Costa del Sol can be filled this summer

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The drought committees still have to decide whether the measure will also be extended to the provinces of Cádiz and Almería

ALL swimming pools in Malaga and Costa del Sol can be filled this summer

After much back and forth, the Junta de Andalucía regional government body has decreed that all swimming pools in the province of Málaga, including those in privately owned villas, can be filled up this summer.

They had previously decreed that this would not be allowed due to the looming drought situation in the area following a particularly dry winter, and then declared that it would be up to the individual municipalities to decide whether or not they would permit private swimming pools to be filled up.

Now, the acting regional Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has announced that the 79,000 swimming pools in Málaga will not be able to be filled up this summer.

Fernández-Pacheco clarified that the Junta is working to “accompany” the local councils hand in hand with those responsible for water policies, which is the Ayuntamientos of each town.

In April, the Ayuntamiento de Estepona already took the unilateral decision to allow private pools to be filled up.

The decision by the Junta comes after recent rainfall has topped up Málaga’s water reserves enough to even relax water restrictions in the Axarquia area, one of the hardest hit by the drought. Until now, the filling of community swimming pools was allowed and now this has been extended to the swimming pools of urbanisations and private houses.

In order to assure province-wide coordination, the Junta de Andalucía has decreed that swimming pools may be filled up in all municipalities of Málaga, and they will help the Town Halls to make this possible.

“Malaga is a leading province in terms of tourism, so the filling of swimming pools was of particular importance,” explained Fernández-Pacheco. The large influx of tourists to the Costa del Sol expected over the summer has been key to the local councils putting pressure on the Junta to reverse their swimming pool ban. Now, the Andalusian government is proposing “a balance” between economic development and the responsible use of water.

Water situation in other Andalucía provinces

Among the new measures, the Junta and the town councils have also approved the extension of the water available for irrigation of farmland to 400 cubic metres per hectare per month, a decision that will also be extended to Almería.

These measures will not change the number of litres of water per person per day set by the drought committees after the relaxation of the water restrictions. In the province of Málaga there are localities in which water consumption per person per day is still restricted to 180, 200 or 225 litres depending on the area and the water capacity of the local councils.

“The amount of water is being maintained, but it would be another matter if we were faced with a month of May in which it rained a lot, but at the moment it doesn’t look like that is going to happen,” said Fernández-Pacheco.

Regarding the filling of swimming pools in other provinces such as Cádiz and Almería, which has been the worst affected by the drought, Fernández-Pacheco pointed out that this decision is limited exclusively to Málaga. “The Junta will study it area by area,” he insisted. These words leave this decision up in the air until the drought committees meet again, which will happen during the month of May.

Image: Archive

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