The province of Málaga is once again grappling with a reliable water supply at the end of the 2026 summer season. Peak tourist activity on the Costa del Sol is up against systems whose reserves, after the recent recovery, are once again under seasonal pressure. According to regional authorities, the Costa del Sol recorded around 14.65 million visitors in 2025 and an economic contribution of about €21.8 billion. This scale intensifies the trade-off between urban supply, wastewater treatment and agricultural needs.
The legal framework is clear: the Ley de Aguas de Andalucía has required municipalities and supramunicipal bodies with more than 10,000 inhabitants to have drought emergency plans since 2010. The 2022 drought, however, exposed gaps in practical implementation. The Junta de Andalucía classified systems such as Viñuela-Axarquía and the Costa del Sol Occidental as affected by exceptional drought. Emergency measures were also adopted to ease supply shortages. These measures included diversions, additional boreholes and temporary increases in pressure.
Since then, projects have been launched to address structural weaknesses: the Desaladora de Marbella is being expanded to increase production. Reversible pumping capacity, such as at the La Rosaleda station, is intended to make distribution more flexible, particularly for Axarquía. Municipal and regional programmes also aim to reduce leaks from pipes and modernise wastewater treatment plants.
Despite this progress, two issues remain central. First, emergency plans have not been finally approved or regularly updated by all bodies, even though the requirement has been in place for years. Second, there is not enough secured storage capacity or rapidly scalable supply to reliably absorb summer peaks. This is where short-term stopgaps collide with the need for robust, properly funded solutions.
For the coming months, this means that coordination between tourist demand, household consumption and irrigation must be more precisely regulated. Priorities include verifiable system plans, additional storage, the timely expansion of desalination and reuse of treated water. Political assessments, such as the order in which water is allocated, remain contentious and must be justified transparently. Project progress, approved budgets and reservoir-related indicators, by contrast, can be measured objectively. Without clear deadlines and responsibilities, ad hoc decisions are once again likely – at a greater cost to the wider economy than timely planning would have entailed.
Editor: Andreas M. Brucker (Article created with AI assistance).