The New Gold
Many, many years ago, about three years after getting married, my parents built this little house. Back then it was pretty much each house for itself in terms of services, so they had to dig their own well. They did so, a well about three meters deep, lined with the rock of the area, a soft sarsen which let the water through easily. There was no need to go deeper; in winter the well would spill over, and the water would run to the fields behind. In summer the water never disappeared.
But water never disappeared anywhere in summer here. There is a reason we are a part of the "green Spain." Galicia is on the receiving end of North Atlantic storm systems, much like western Ireland. My husband says that during his childhood it would rain from September to May, with scattered showers in the remaining months. When we first arrived in 1991, we arrived to a year of drought. I remember well the advisories on the nightly news, especially affecting southern Spain, yet we also experienced an unheard of lack of water. Springs, fountains and wells that had never run dry thinned to a trickle, and then turned to dusty bones. It rained again in the winter, though, and the water level recuperated.
Since then, we have had mroe droughts, as well as some of the rainiest and stormiest winters in memory. But the problem is that weather anomalies have become more frequent. The surface temperature of the sea is higher than usual this year; Hurricane Ophelia is due to barrel by on its way to a northern death this coming Sunday night. The NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) sent the storm systems further north this past winter, leaving Galicia and Spain a winter full of sunshine, and depleting water resources.
This summer has become one of the longest and increasingly hottest. There were temperatures close to 33ºC/90ºF yesterday in the interior of Galicia, the sun pouring gasoline on various forest fires. In the south of Spain, Córdoba was mentioned as having had 150 days with the temperature reaching above 30ºC/86ºF, and farmers complaining they have no water for their crops. Countless small cities and towns across Spain have had to apply measures to save water, such as cutting it off during some hours every day. Reservoirs that were plentiful just a year ago are now showing the bare bones of their bottoms. There is every indication that this will repeat itself in the years to come.
And so, our well, which once had a surfeit of water both in winter and summer, is almost dry. The water level has fallen lower than it's ever been. The house next door, where my parents used to live, and where our washing machine still lives, has no water. The tube that extracts water to it from the well is above the water line. Ours is almost at the water line. Luckily, our daughter is in Santiago, and now we're only two people in the house. Yet, it's amazing just how much running water is necessary. We try to cut back, using bottled water for cooking, water collected in the shower for the toilet, navy showers, and flash washing of dishware (it's amazing I haven't broken anything yet). But something needed to be done in the face of what the future will probably bring.
So we have called upon specialists to come and dig the well deeper. That is what they are doing now, digging up sand and crunching up rock with a small jack hammer. The well my parents thought would serve every need of this house forever has to chase down into the earth after the water. The plumber will then come on Monday and put in longer tubes. Hopefully, we will now have water without any problems well into the future. But we can't open the faucets with abandon. Water is becoming as precious as gold.
But water never disappeared anywhere in summer here. There is a reason we are a part of the "green Spain." Galicia is on the receiving end of North Atlantic storm systems, much like western Ireland. My husband says that during his childhood it would rain from September to May, with scattered showers in the remaining months. When we first arrived in 1991, we arrived to a year of drought. I remember well the advisories on the nightly news, especially affecting southern Spain, yet we also experienced an unheard of lack of water. Springs, fountains and wells that had never run dry thinned to a trickle, and then turned to dusty bones. It rained again in the winter, though, and the water level recuperated.
Since then, we have had mroe droughts, as well as some of the rainiest and stormiest winters in memory. But the problem is that weather anomalies have become more frequent. The surface temperature of the sea is higher than usual this year; Hurricane Ophelia is due to barrel by on its way to a northern death this coming Sunday night. The NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) sent the storm systems further north this past winter, leaving Galicia and Spain a winter full of sunshine, and depleting water resources.
This summer has become one of the longest and increasingly hottest. There were temperatures close to 33ºC/90ºF yesterday in the interior of Galicia, the sun pouring gasoline on various forest fires. In the south of Spain, Córdoba was mentioned as having had 150 days with the temperature reaching above 30ºC/86ºF, and farmers complaining they have no water for their crops. Countless small cities and towns across Spain have had to apply measures to save water, such as cutting it off during some hours every day. Reservoirs that were plentiful just a year ago are now showing the bare bones of their bottoms. There is every indication that this will repeat itself in the years to come.
And so, our well, which once had a surfeit of water both in winter and summer, is almost dry. The water level has fallen lower than it's ever been. The house next door, where my parents used to live, and where our washing machine still lives, has no water. The tube that extracts water to it from the well is above the water line. Ours is almost at the water line. Luckily, our daughter is in Santiago, and now we're only two people in the house. Yet, it's amazing just how much running water is necessary. We try to cut back, using bottled water for cooking, water collected in the shower for the toilet, navy showers, and flash washing of dishware (it's amazing I haven't broken anything yet). But something needed to be done in the face of what the future will probably bring.
So we have called upon specialists to come and dig the well deeper. That is what they are doing now, digging up sand and crunching up rock with a small jack hammer. The well my parents thought would serve every need of this house forever has to chase down into the earth after the water. The plumber will then come on Monday and put in longer tubes. Hopefully, we will now have water without any problems well into the future. But we can't open the faucets with abandon. Water is becoming as precious as gold.
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