The government empties the Santa Teresa reservoir to comply with Portugal and take it away from irrigators

The Duero Hydrographic Confederation, which is part of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, will soon empty the reservoir to give the water to Portugal within the framework of the Albufeira Agreement. 
 
Among other things, the agreement establishes that each state will manage its own water infrastructures in its own territory. The aim is to ensure compliance with a flow regime set in a series of river sections called "control stations".
 
The owner of the dam is the State and the operating regime of the reservoir, i.e. the flow of water leaving the dam, is decided only by the Confederación Hidrográfica del Duero. 
 
The water released by Santa Teresa contributes to compliance with the agreement through the control point known as the Saucelle Dam and the Agueda river. It is through here, between 30 September and 1 October, that 3,800 hm3 must flow in the direction of Portugal.
 
Water management is highly conditioned by this agreement, which obliges certain volumes of water to be sent to the neighbouring country on a weekly, quarterly and annual basis.
 
For the moment, it is not known how much the volume of water will decrease, as the figures have not been specified, but it is foreseeable that there will be a notable decrease. The energy produced by the outflow of water is subsidiary to the Albufeira agreement and the decisions of the Confederation.
 
The website 'embalses.net' reports that on Tuesday 2 August it had a capacity of just over 64%, having dropped by about 5% compared to last week. The same week last year, this reservoir was at 68% of its total capacity.
 
Moreover, according to all weather forecasts, August is expected to remain extremely hot, dry and low in rainfall. This could make the Ministry's decision even more dangerous and problematic in the coming weeks.
 
Teresa Ribera's Ministry continues to lurch forward without knowing where to act either with reason or with environmentalism. Now, it intends to leave irrigators without water in an area that is suffering more and more from the drought every day and, most likely, those affected will make their displeasure with this decision known. 
 
It seems that Sánchez's government only gets it right when it corrects itself. We will see if this will be one of those situations and if the minister will continue to turn her back on the countryside of Castilla y León, to whom she first put the wolf and now takes away the water.