The new Exploitation Rules of July 2021 are not effective in preventing the emptying of the reservoirs at the head of the Tagus. Faced with a year with contributions below average, the UCLM-Soliss Tagus Chair invites caution when approving new transfers.

At the end of this month of May, the Entrepeñas and Buendía reservoirs are once again in an exceptional hydrological situation (Level 3), which confirms that the Exploitation Rules that were approved in July 2021 are not capable of preventing the emptying of these reservoirs at the head of the Tagus.

This month there is a volume of dammed water of 739.1 hm³, of which 106 hm³ They are stored but pending transfer. For this reason, the effective volume of 633.1 hm³ is below the level of 645 hm³ which corresponds to the limit between levels 2 and 3.

If the contributions of water received in the reservoirs are taken into account, the head of the Tagus is in a year that is not particularly humid. In the first seven months of the current hydrological year (October-April), the accumulated contribution, about 329 hm³, is significantly less than 500 hm³ on average from 1980 to the present.

Given this situation, the UCLM-Soliss Tagus Chair invites caution when approving more transfers, which would further increase the amount stored and pending transfer. Given that the hydrological year ends on September 30 and this is, therefore, the deadline for carrying out water diversions through the transfer, if more transfers are approved, a drastic decrease in the water table in Entrepeñas and Buendía in the summer months, thus further limiting its tourist development. These reservoirs, due to their hyper-annual nature, must be capable of storing enough water to satisfy all the needs of the Tagus. However, the actual monthly disbursements to the Tagus have been practically every month since 2014 lower than the monthly maximum allowed.

Remember that, prior to the approval of these new Operating Rules, a case by the members of the Tagus Chair of the UCLM-Soliss pit in which lower values ​​were proposed to be transferred than those that were finally approved. The modeling was carried out with the purpose of avoiding entering into levels of hydrological exceptionality and zero transfer, as in this case has happened again.