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News, December 2009More NewsA few more news items and where to find more news about Spain:Water reserves:Thank God for water! The new hydrological year (starting October) is so far one of the wettest on record, particularly in the Balearic islands. In other parts water levels, which were desperately low as recently as April, 2008, have recovered. The most unusually needy until January was the Muga basin, at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Spanish rainfall is at best temperamental, with alternate droughts and periods of relatively heavy rainfall. [Image 59???]At the end of another 'hidrological year', we were greatly relieved! The winter of 2007-8 was dry and reserves were way down in late April. Then May became a record breaking month for rain in many regions, particularly severely hit Catalonia. All this rain chaos came just in time for the Zaragoza Water Expo! At 4th March, the level -which should have been far higher- was 44.9% total and 41% drinking water. By 30th September, end of the hydrological year, the levels stood at 43.3% and 36.4%, with rain in the autumn in most areas filling reservoirs to close on record or overflowing. We will resume detailed water reserve reports should levels again drop to critical. Spain is one of Europe's top 'green' generators, partly due to the large number of reservoirs. But this green potential remains at the mercy of the weather. In Mallorca, falls of over 200mm in the mountains on 15th April (2007) brought the reservoirs (only 2!) to overflowing for the first time in a decade. A year on, despite much autumn rain, reserves were back to 80% and gradually falling. TechnologyMost of our technology statistics have now been moved to a new page. Here are some of the key headlines:Spanish TV across the world: The Spanish national station TVE has an international service with two channels. TVE Internacional and Canal 24 Horas. TVEI includes the evangelical programme Buenas Noticias TV (which runs on Sundays). Programme: at this link. The menu offers programme (2 days in advance) and technological details. In theory 101% of the population have mobiles (cell phones) 6.4 million Spaniards have Internet access. By 2011, 80% could have it. El Mundo.es has over 11 million unique monthly visitors Annual visits for 2006 to P4S 38,750 (about 212,000 hits) and continues gradually to grow. The current yearly total is running at rather over 57,000 visits, or 220,000 hits. Old News archivePast news is not all forgotten by P4S! Such items as can be found on the news pages at the end of every month are being filed in our archives. Your response and concerns are also of interest to us. Don't hesitate to let us know them |