Yes, as the Guardian tells us, southern Europe is indeed in the grip of a drought. I’ve actually noticed that the tap water here in Cascais (just outside Lisbon) is getting more salty. Althought that could just be my imagination.

But in the long (and highly informative) piece our Groan correspondent does not mention the one important thing. Pricing. Most doemstic use here in Portugal is metered and you pay on your volume of usage. Agricultural (and that includes golf courses) is not so metered. Scarce resource? Yes, you need to have a pricing system and thus a market.

One delicious piece, no, we cannot blame this on climate change:

Professor Saunders says
that the current situation is a result of natural climate variability.
Drought trends going back more than 100 years show this sort of natural
cycle repeating itself time and again. He also rules out global warming
as a contributing factor since it is expected to cause wetter winters.

So, next time you fire up that Chelsea tractor, just remember, you’re doing it to save the golf courses of the Algarve.