Spain holiday warning as hotspots at risk due to crisis which is ‘worst in 200 years’

Popular Spanish holiday destinations are under threat due to a drought, according to reports. Catalonia - which includes Barcelona - is being hit by the worst drought in 200 years with emergency restrictions and rules needing to be imposed.

Brits staying in Barcelona over the Easter holiday were met with large signs in English reading: "Drought alert. During your stay, save water", according to Reuters news agency. The situation has been “critical” for farmers in the area for some time, water management expert and a geographer at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, David Saurí, told Euronews, Birmingham Mail reports.

The expert added: "Tourism is not what we would call the ‘bad guy’ of the movie... but there are lots of ‘bad guys’ and lots of ‘good guys.’ Not all tourism is the same." One tour guide told the Telegraph: “When my parents were young they would jump from the roof of the local school into snow drifts 15 metres deep.

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"Nowadays we’re lucky to get a metre.” A farmer added:. “Our potato harvest is a third of what we normally get. Tomatoes are down too, and – for the first time in 23 years – our oil and wine production stands at zero."

He went on: “It’s not only droughts that are going to become more frequent and severe, but also intense rainfall. It’s highly likely that we’re going to see torrential rain after this drought, and if it falls on bare earth the erosion will be catastrophic. It will wash away all the fertile soil.”

“It’s the first time our well has gone dry in over 13 years,” said a resident in Seville. “We are having to completely redesign our garden to make it more drought resilient. We’ve changed our