News, December 2006

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A few more news items and where to find more news about Spain:

Water reserves:

[Image 49???]After two years of drought, water reserves are noteworthy. At 19th December the reservoirs were recovering well in most regions of the peninsula, back above half to 57.2% of capacity (mid-October 40%) but only 44.9% (up from 32.3%) of drinking water capacity. The situation has been alleviated by severe rainy weather in the North and West, finally spreading to most areas. The situation remains critical in parts of the South East. Reserves, in October at the lowest ever, are now edging above average after rainfall in the west has filled some river systems to overflowing. However, the Mediterranean coast needs more and the Balearic islands (Mallorca) have only had rain since mid-December.

In particular, the Jucar river reservoirs, feeding the Costa Blanca, have just 6.2% of capacity, the Segura (Mar Menor) has 11%, Malaga has 17% and the upper Tajo area, Spain's largest reservoir system, which could feed many parts of the south and east, has a mere 11.7%, just above the limit for allowing transfers to other regions. This year's orange crop is badly hit by the ban on watering, although some rainfall during the autumn has brought a reprieve to drinking water supplies as it trickles into the Jucar and Segura reservoirs. A transfer of water from the upper Tajo is now again a possibility to help, although December rain in the Tajo area has so far been limited.

Should December's rainfall in the Mediterranean basin bring reserves everywhere above 15%, we are hopeful we will be able to drop the water report until next summer!

Technology

Most 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.

93.9% of population have mobiles (cell phones)

4.4 million Spaniards have Broadband access

El Mundo.es has almost 10 million unique monthly visitors

Annual visits (at end October '06)to P4S above 37,000

Old News archive

Past 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.
News from recent months
Older news (before summer '05)
Comment on the news and other issues

Your response and concerns are also of interest to us. Don't hesitate to let us know them

Finally, more news from the churches is always available at the Protestante Digital site.

This week on Protestante Digital: (29th December)

Nativity Story on the big screen once more
Hope amidst the tinsel
R.E. stays but 'Citizenship' is watered down
Eleven people killed when tree fell on evangelical church
Luther Forum opens at Canary Islands university
High attendance at I Evangelical Congress of Andalusia
Madrid Baptist Church celebrates its diamond anniversary
Christmas service on TV for second year running
Public employees get training in religious pluralism
No time to have influence...too busy at church
Association clashes with Catholic Church over 'selective memory'
Muslim teacher sacked for refusing to remove her veil