Calay News
In Spain, a large part of the country is suffering from a worrying drought. Residents of Jaen, in the south of the country, carried the image of Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno in procession this week to ask for rain in the region known for its olive groves. The statue, known as “El Abuelo” in the city, had not been taken out in a procession to ask for rain for 75 years. Ricardo Cobos, Elder Brother of the Brotherhood of “El Abuelo,” explained that the region depends heavily on olive and oil cultivation and that when the land does not receive water, it is an economic catastrophe.
Sixty percent of Spanish agricultural land is currently “suffocated” by the lack of rainfall, according to the main farmers’ union, Coag. The shortage of rainfall has left the country’s reservoirs at 50.1% of their capacity, with particularly low levels in the Guadalquivir basin in Andalusia and in the internal basins of Catalonia. In addition, last week was combined with an exceptionally early heat wave, which left temperatures in some parts of the south exceeding 37 degrees Celsius.
The Spanish government has asked the European Commission to activate the “crisis reserve” of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to help farmers, who are being affected by the historic drought that is threatening harvests. Madrid has also announced a series of tax breaks for farmers, including a 25% income tax reduction that will benefit 800,000 professionals. Meanwhile, in Jaén, residents continue to look to the sky in the hope that their procession will help bring rain. Antonia Contreras, a housewife who traveled from a nearby town to follow the procession, said she has great faith that the Lord will give them water.
