SPANISH farmers are using sewage water to keep their crops alive as the country struggles to cope with its worst drought in 60 years.

In one case, filthy water used on a lettuce crop in Murcia, southeast Spain, caused a salmonella outbreak and provoked complaints to Madrid from other European countries.

But the Government’s response has caused a row between Murcia and the neighbouring region of Castilla La Mancha.

The Spanish Government used the salmonella outbreak to justify diverting water from one of its largest rivers, the Tagus, in Castilla La Mancha, to the River Segura in Murcia to help farmers there.

Such is the bitterness over the dwindling water reserves that the regional government in Castilla La Mancha, determined to prove that Murcia was hiding reserves, chartered a helicopter to film “hidden” reservoirs and used satellite photographs to claim that Murcia had 47 per cent more water than it had declared.

Politicians in Murcia have said that they were the victims of “espionage”, but have so far failed to counter the helicopter evidence.

It is rare for the Government in Madrid to step in to a row between Spain’s powerful regions. The last such intervention in 1995 was also prompted by a drought. This time, the Socialist Government decided that 82 billion litres (18 billion gallons) of water would be channelled from the Tagus to Murcia, where much produce is grown in greenhouses and there are many golf courses. Cristina Narbona, the Environment Minister, justified the decision to divert water by saying that the salmonella incident did not help the image of Murcia, which produces 20 per cent of Spain’s fruit and vegetables.

This year’s rainfall in Spain is 37 per cent less than the average since 1930 and forecasters predict no improvement until at least next year. Señora Narbona said that she feared further outbreaks.

The decision has not satisfied anyone and both sides are threatening legal action.

In Castilla La Mancha, water reserves have fallen to 360 billion litres — the lowest since records began in 1912. At least 20,000 farmers took to the streets of Ciudad Real, the regional capital, to protest against the Government’s decision. They wanted no more than 30 billion litres of water transferred to Murcia, and only for human needs.

Máximo Díaz-Cano, a minister in the Castilla La Mancha administration, called the decision irresponsible and excessive, and threatened legal action to reduce the water diverted from a region that is suffering as badly as Murcia from la sequia (drought).

Meanwhile in Murcia, politicians and farmers had hoped for double the amount of water. Antonio Cerdá, president of Murcia, accused the Government of favouring its political allies in Socialist-run Castilla La Mancha. He threatened to take “all the political and legal measures possible” to save 70,000 farming families from being ruined if crops failed.

In the Segura basin, water reserves have fallen to only 10 per cent of normal — the lowest in Spain — threatening crops this year and next.

Against this background, Spain has been accused by Portugal of diverting water supplies from the River Douro and Lisbon has demanded £4 million compensation for breaking an agreement signed in 1998.

Farmers across Spain are already deserting the land, with losses since January estimated at €2.6 million (£1.8 million), and emergency restrictions have been imposed on water supplies in half the country.

The Government has a £249 million emergency plan in place to help farmers. Domestic supplies in half the country have been guaranteed only until September.

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