Barcelona: 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. Neighboring 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 said. 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% 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. "If it doesn't rain and if we hadn't implemented solutions, then Barcelona would be facing supply cuts. But the signs are that work in progress and management measures will work perfectly,' said city council environment manager Jordi Campillo. The tanker vessel Sichem Defender docked at Barcelona on May 13 carrying 19,000 tonnes of water from the southern Catalan town of Tarragona: overall, ships will provide 6% of the drinking water for 5.5 million people over the summer, as authorities bring in 10 boatloads from Tarragona, Marseille, and a desalination plant in southern Spain. Ships are a stopgap solution, and while they will quench citizens' thirst for a few months, authorities fear increasingly frequent drought around the Mediterranean might require more permanent measures. REUTERS