SPAIN: SIX MONTH DROUGHT SEVERELY AFFECTS AGRICULTURE, WINTER TOURISM AND HEALTH OF THE ECONOMY.

Record ID: 648345

  • Title: SPAIN: SIX MONTH DROUGHT SEVERELY AFFECTS AGRICULTURE, WINTER TOURISM AND HEALTH OF THE ECONOMY.
  • Date: 10th January 1975
  • Summary: 1. GV Madrid church reflected in park lake 0.13 2. CU INTERIOR Priest conducting Mass 0.22 3. CU Thermometer reading 35 degrees 0.26 4. CU St. Bernard snow-rescue dog asleep in sun 0.27 5. SV Ski-lift up sunlit, snowless mountain 0.32 6. CU Ski-lift chair silhouetted against the sun 0.38 7. CU Sign "Skis and boots for hire" 0.42 8. LV ZOOM OUT AND PAN FROM Snowless mountain TO partially-empty reservoir 0.56 9. LV Dry section of reservoir with normally submerged church 1.01 10. GV Reservoir 1.05 11. GV AND LV Dam with dry spillways 1.12 12. SV AND CU Electricity pylons 1.17 13. LV Pylons with arid brush in foreground 1.22 14. SV AND LV Bulls grazing on parched grass and lying down in the shade (2 shots) 1.31 15. GV Parched valley with farm in foreground 1.34 Initials CL/2345 CL/0003 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th January 1975 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR MADRID, SPAIN
  • Country: Spain
  • Reuters ID: LVAE8AK6XYX35O05T48C4N5K40U0
  • Story Text: More than six months' continual drought has severely affected the Spanish economy. Wide areas of 20 Spanish provinces have been declared disaster areas, with crops and cattle dying, and the growing winter sports industry has suffered a severe set-back because of lack of snow.

    Worst-hit areas include the southern provinces of Andalucia, the central plain of Castille and the western region of Extramadura, which borders with Portugal. But throughout the country agriculture is suffering from the lack of rainfall. Loss of hydro-electric power has to be made up by oil-generating stations ... causing a 23 per cent increase in electricity prices.

    In the central Guadarrama mountains, near the capital, Madrid, ski resorts like Navacerrada have few if any tourists this year. The only snow reported in Spain is in the Pyrenees range near the French border. The drop in tourist earnings in the southern Sierra Nevada range alone is estimated to exceed 800,000 pounds sterling (1.9 million US dollars).

    As prayers for rain are said in churches throughout Spain, the Government has taken steps to make available to farmers 900 million pesetas (6.8 million pounds sterling) worth of credits to buy cereals to feed starving cattle. In some areas, though, farmers have already begun to slaughter the animals.

    Livestock losses so far are estimated at 84 million pounds sterling (200 million US dollars), and autumn-sown cereal crops are expected to have a failure rate of at least 50 per cent.

    At the same time, water levels in reservoirs and cachament area dams are considerably below average for the time of year, and water rationing has begun in some provincial capitals. In Madrid itself, the dry, still air is already causing dangerous atmospheric pollution, and the latest meteorological predictions forecast below average rainfall continuing through the month.
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