Medieval church re-emerges as Spain ships in water

By Martin Roberts

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Perhaps the most striking image of Spain's drought, so severe it has forced Barcelona to ship in water, has been that of the underwater church which emerged from a drying dam.

For most of the past four decades, all that has been visible of the village of Sant Roma has been the belltower of its stone church, peeping above the water beside forested hills from a valley flooded in the 1960s to provide water for the Catalonia region.

This year, receding waters have exposed the 11th-century church completely, attracting crowds of tourists who stand gazing around it on the dusty bed of the reservoir.

Neighbouring Vilanova de Sau is enjoying a tourist boom, its mayor Joan Riera says.

"Every time it's on television, a whole lot of people come," Riera told Reuters by telephone, adding that this was all very well but it had made it impossible to find a table in the town's restaurants: "They all want to eat at the same time."

Drying dams are causing problems still more serious in Barcelona, the region's glamorous capital, which has had to charter ships to bring in drinking water.

After proverbial April showers, reservoirs are now about 25 percent full but will have to provide for a hot, dry summer, so emergency measures may only have been delayed.

For now, the short-term outlook is tolerable. But officials said that without shipped water and a campaign to cut water waste, the city could face its first cut in domestic water supplies since 1953.