In 2022, the Spanish government passed a law aimed at dissuading people from littering and not recycling properly, with fines of up to €2,001 for those who left cardboard boxes outside of the correct dumpster. 

In Madrid alone, 299 people have been fined that eye-watering amount since the legislation passed, in most cases because they couldn’t get the Amazon cardboard boxes (with their name and address on them) to fit inside the paper rubbish containers.

READ ALSO: What are the recycling rules in Spain?

This has shocked many people across the country, but the truth is that most town halls in Spain have their own rules in place to prevent people from leaving furniture lying in the street, rubbish bags festering outside or putting litter in the wrong recycling bins.

Under the current approach of getting tough on those who disregard health and environmental concerns, many cities and towns are carrying out more inspections than ever.

The glitzy city of Marbella is among them, having already opened disciplinary action against 128 residents so far this year. Police officers in civilian clothing are patrolling the streets in greater numbers in a bid to catch unsuspecting offenders. Fines range from €90 to €3,000 depending on the severity. 

In Cádiz, undercover cops are also keeping a close eye on rubbish bins. In Cabo de Gata in Almería, €700 fines have been handed out to those leaving rubbish at the beach. 

In Burgos in northern Spain, €300 penalties for leaving a mattress leaning next to a dumpster. 

In Torrevieja in Alicante, new fines range from €150 for minor offences such as chucking cigarette butts on the ground to a whopping €500,000 for serious environmental hazards.

Every town and city sets its own amounts but what’s clear is that there are dozens of recent news stories from every region showcasing how littering is being treated and policed far more seriously than it once was.

In other news, Spain may have managed to avoid a nationwide drought this summer due to some welcome rain over the last eight months, but there are still places where the lack of water is causing serious consequences.

In several towns along the Costa Blanca, people have been warned not to drink tap water as a severe drought has made it saline and undrinkable. 

Teulada, Benitachell and Moraira are among them. Here tourists and locals are queuing up to fill up bottles of drinkable H20 in the midst of a sweltering summer. 

Water usage soars in the Marina Alta area, where there are 38,000 pools, one for every five inhabitants.

The northern part of Alicante province had half the average amount of rain in 2023 and only 10 percent of normal levels so far in 2024.

Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation agency, on Friday shared a satellite image of Alicante as its photo of the day to highlight the “severe drought” the region is experiencing.

This #Sentinel2 image acquired on 17 August 2024 shows Costa Blanca, an area severely affected by the drought in Spain. The prolonged lack of rainfall has led to significant water shortages, resulting in the salinisation of aquifers in coastal towns.

🔗https://t.co/zcRV3ztF4w pic.twitter.com/IolsBd6eNT

— Copernicus EU (@CopernicusEU) August 23, 2024

The Valencian Community declared the state of “extreme drought” last March, the worst in 33 years after an extremely hot 2023 which sapped aquifer reserves. Overdevelopment and mass tourism are also contributing enormously to the scarcity. 

There have been restrictions in numerous municipalities across the region since, but some town halls have flouted the advice and continued to allow people to fill up their pools and water their gardens.

What’s clear is that Spain’s fight against drought will never really have an end point, however full the country’s reservoirs become after a period of ‘normal’ rainfall (currently 43 percent full nationwide). 

According to scientists, Spain has the “perfect” conditions for desertification to occur: climate change, overdevelopment, huge volumes of people. From the south, to the east, to the northeast, 73 percent of Spain is at risk of becoming a desert.