Overview
- The Xunta de Galicia activated a prealerta on Wednesday, July 8 for the Lérez and the Anllóns/Costa da Coruña systems covering 32 concellos and ordered intensified monitoring and reporting by Augas de Galicia.
- Vigo declared its own municipal prealerta on Tuesday, July 7 and banned non‑priority uses such as filling private pools, washing cars with potable water and beach showers while Baiona issued an equivalent ban on Monday, July 6 with its Baíña reservoir at roughly 63% capacity.
- Key supply indicators show stress: the Eiras reservoir serving Vigo sits around 86–87% and Zamáns about 81%, while reduced spring recharge this spring has driven sharp falls in river flows and left small springs and traídas especially vulnerable.
- The prealerta is preventive rather than an automatic cut; Augas de Galicia will notify mayors in writing and ask municipalities to minimise non‑essential municipal uses while local councils and concessionaires such as UTE Gestión Cangas prepare local restriction plans.
- Beyond immediate savings, the episode highlights how limited storage and fragmented local supplies raise summer risks for tourism towns and is renewing local political debate over building upstream reservoirs and using treated effluent as medium‑term resilience options.