Water consumption has gone up in Spain

According to the National Institute for Statistics domestic water consumption has increased by 2.4% since 2003 with each Spanish citizen using 171 litres of water per day. Agricultural consumption has also gone up by 1.4%. It has also been discovered that almost 18% of the water supply is lost through leaking or damaged pipes.

Statistics show that agricultural use of water used up 42% of the total supply in reservoirs in 2004 and 67% of the water supplied for public and domestic purposes was used by Spanish families.

The highest consumption of water was in Andalucia where 25.1% of the total was used, Aragon increased its water consumption by 9.6% and Navarra by 9.5%.

These worrying statistics come at a time when Spain is suffering one of its worst droughts for many years. This added to the urban expansion taking place in many towns and cities in Spain and along the whole of the Mediterranean has given rise to deep concerns over the sustainability of adequate water supply in the future.