The boats will supply Spain's second-largest city with enough water to meet Barcelona's consumption needs for five days -- at a cost of 22 million euros (34.4 million dollars).

The first ship will depart from the Spanish Mediterranean city of Tarragona for Barcelona during the first two weeks of May, said a spokesman for the environment ministry of the regional government of Catalonia.

Two more ships loaded with water will leave the French port city of Marseille for the Catalan capital during the second half of the month, the spokesman added.

Water reserves across Spain have dropped to 46.6 percent of capacity, a 20 percentage point drop over the level recorded a decade ago.

The situation is especially critical in the northeastern region of Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, where water reserves at just 19 percent of capacity.

If they drop below 15 percent, the water from the dams cannot be used as it is too close to the bottom and will have too much sediment.

To cope with the drought, the Catalan government wanted to divert water from the river Segre, a tributary of the gigantic Ebro, to Barcelona but this plan was rejected by the central Spanish government in Madrid which argued it was bad for the environment.

The Catalan government had also planned to import fresh water by train from other regions of Spain but this was ultimately discarded as too expensive.

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