Barcelona, Spain - The north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia will cancel emergency measures to guarantee water supplies in the Barcelona region after rains have begun filling water reservoirs, press reports said Thursday.

The region had prohibited wasting water through irrigation or swimming pools, and started bringing in water by tanker ships to combat its worst drought in 60 years.

It also launched a controversial project for a 62-kilometre pipeline to divert water from the river Ebro to guarantee supplies of drinking water to some five million people in the Barcelona metropolitan area.

Now, however, the water level in reservoirs has doubled to more than 40 per cent of their capacity and was expected to continue rising.

The Ebro pipeline project had been opposed by other regions, above all neighbouring Aragon, which wanted a say over the use of the river which also crosses its territory.

The Catalan authorities were expected to announce the cancellation of the emergency measures in the coming week. (dpa)