The 11th Century church of Sant Romà de Sau was submerged when the reservoir was created in 1962In the Sau reservoir, teams in small boats are hard at work hauling out fish with nets. The idea is to remove them before they die and rot in the water, making it unusable for human consumption.
The Sau reservoir, 100km inland from Barcelona, has been supplying water to the city and other towns in the north-eastern region of Catalonia for half a century. But in recent months it has become the most visible symbol of the worst drought this area has seen in living memory. This part of Catalonia has not seen sustained rain in two-and-a-half years. In early March, the reservoir's water level had dropped to 8% of its capacity, down from 55% a year earlier.
In March, Spain's meteorological agency AEMET declared that the country as a whole "continues in a situation of meteorological drought which began over a year ago". "The Mediterranean area is one of the most vulnerable areas when it comes to climate change," he said, identifying countries such as France, Italy, Greece and the Balkans as being at high risk. "The Mediterranean Sea is a closed sea, creating its own atmospheric environment."
"If we can't plant as many crops, there will be less product and there will be shortages," he said, standing in a field of artichokes that he is cultivating.