By Eva Manez

TEULADA-MORAIRA, Spain (Reuters) – A severe drought has left tap water undrinkable in several towns on Spain’s Costa Blanca, forcing holidaymakers and locals to queue at distribution points to buy bottled water to meet their basic needs.

As the water level has dropped, salinity has increased, prompting authorities in some areas to declare tap water undrinkable or for boiling. Bottled water is distributed free of charge.

Overdevelopment, climate change and mass tourism during the summer months, when the population of the popular Mediterranean destination soars, have exacerbated the problem, activists say.

In the Marina Alta region, north of the provincial capital Alicante, water consumption rose from 2.3 billion liters in January to 19.67 billion liters in July.

According to the National Statistics Institute, there are almost 38,000 swimming pools in the area, or one for every five inhabitants. The average for the whole of Spain is one swimming pool for every 35 people.

Due to the water shortage, city councils were forced to ban activities such as filling swimming pools, watering gardens and washing cars during the day.

“We are already heading for a climate emergency,” Joan Sala of the environmental group Accio Ecologista-Agro told Reuters, pointing to the low rainfall in the northern part of Alicante province, where it rained only half as much as usual last year and only 10 percent of average so far this year.

“You have to be a little more foresighted because now in summer there are many more people here than in winter,” says Fernando Sapena, owner of the restaurant “El Raco De L’arros” in the town of Teulada-Moraira, which specialises in paella, a rice dish from Valencia.

Traditionally, Valencians attribute the special taste of the local paella to the mineral-rich, hard tap water.

The drought has also caused damage to the region’s agricultural sector amounting to more than 65 million euros (72.27 million dollars), the farmers’ association ASAJA said in July.

(1 US dollar = 0.8994 euros)

(Reporting by Eva Manez; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Sharon Singleton)