'I feel abandoned': These Spanish towns haven't had clean tap water for 10 months

It is an exceptionally rainy day in the small town of Pozoblanco, 70 kilometres north of Córdoba city in Andalucía. But 50 centimetres of rain in one February weekend is still a drop in the ocean of need.

Most of the residents gather around cisterns of water in the morning and after lunch. This is where the life of the Spanish town centres now.

Along Holanda Street, more and more cars pull up with dozens of empty plastic containers stuffed in their boots. The water tanker doesn’t come on Sundays so people need to stock up. If they don't, they can't brush their teeth or even cook dinner.

The lack of drinking water is not a new problem. Residents have been living like this since 17 April 2023, when Andalucía’s government declared the tap water unfit for human consumption.

Andalucía's los Pedroches and el Guadiato regions are not the only parts of Spain impacted by drought. Last month Catalonia declared a drought emergency, imposing water restrictions that affect around six million people in Barcelona and hundreds of surrounding towns.

These are just some of the consequences of three years of below-average rainfall and record-high temperatures driven by climate change in Spain.

People entering La Taberna restaurant in Pozoblanco like to joke: "Let's have a beer rather than water, it is better." But when they start talking and the topic turns to water, you can hear the frustration growing.

"We have a saying: 'reir para no llorar', meaning ‘to laugh so as not to cry,’ África Villén, a resident who runs her own photography and video production business, tells Euronews Green.

As we wait in line for water from the tanker, África produces a video of a 5-month-old boy, covered in red pimples. “His mum sent it to me, she says it is from