MADRID - Spanish ministers agreed to set aside 300 million euros ($390 million) on Friday to guarantee the country's taps do not run dry this summer after the driest winter since records began.
Spain has had the lowest rainfall from November to March since 1947, the Meteorological Institute says.
Some farmers have opted not to plant, or to sow less thirsty crops than they would otherwise have chosen.
Reservoirs are 62 percent full compared with 90 percent this time last year and with water reserves unequally spread between the wet north and the dry south.
Measures include reactivating disused canals and wells and opening connections between reservoirs and rivers in different areas.
"These measures along with water in the reservoirs will guarantee urban supplies for the rest of the hydrological year (to September 30) with limitations that could affect only some irrigation in certain areas," the government said in notes from the weekly cabinet meeting.
The last drought lasted from 1990 to 1995 and since then Spain's population has grown by 10 percent and tourism and suburban sprawl meant a steady increase in the number of golf courses, gardens and swimming pools.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
