A water tanker has arrived in Barcelona to provide the drought-striken region's population with drinkable water, regional authorities said Tuesday.

The Sichem Defender came from Tarragona in Spain's northeast with 19 cubic metres (more than 4,000 gallons) of water. Four more tankers are due to arrive from the south of France to provide Barcelona's residents with regular water supplies of up to 42,000 cubic metres for at least three months.

Barcelona and the surrounding area's 5.5 million inhabitants should receive 1,660,000 cubic metres of drinkable water every month, six percent of their total water intake as part of this 22 million euro-a-month project (34 million dollars), according to the regional government's environment authorities.

The measures are part of the Catalan government's measures to tackle drought in the semi-autonomous northeastern region. Regional authorities said they will renew their three-month contracts with the three maritime water-suppliers if necessary.

The weekend saw the strongest rainfall at this time of year since 1930, raising water reserves to 26.9 percent. As summer nears, this is still not enough to fill water shortages in the region, authorities said.