Spain’s Sánchez warns drought now a major national concern

By JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned lawmakers that the acute drought afflicting the southern European country will remain one of its leading long-term problems. “This is clearly our responsibility, our duty, because the challenge we face from climate change and water stress is evident,” Sánchez told the Madrid-based Parliament on Wednesday. Spain’s farms are reeling under prolonged below-average rainfall after a record hot 2022. Officials in Spain’s northeast around Barcelona predict the area will enter a “drought emergency” by September. And wildfires are already coming earlier than usual with swathes of the countryside bone dry.