Unió de Pagesos has demanded that the water regeneration project at the Reus treatment plant be accelerated and done “on an emergency basis” to be able to irrigate in 2024.
The union has sent the demand to around twenty mayors of the municipalities in the irrigation area of ??the Riudecanyes reservoir, which is currently below 4% of its capacity.
The meeting has served to warn of the situation that the primary sector has been experiencing for two years and to urge municipal representatives to pressure the Government to make the reuse of water a reality next year. “Either we get this water or many farmers are dead,” said the head of Tarragonès Water at Unió de Pagesos, Martí Macias.
Macias has stressed that the sector “cannot wait any longer” and that the execution of the Reusense project “must be done as quickly as possible.” “We have urged the mayors to put pressure on each other because this is an emergency work,” said Macias, who lamented that farmers will begin in 2024 without water in the swamps.
The person responsible for Tarragonès Water of UP has added that if it continues without rain and farmers cannot count on regenerated water, the number of dead farms will increase and the aquifers will become increasingly empty.
A “critical” situation that the UP representatives in the territory have conveyed to around twenty mayors and representatives of the municipalities that are in the irrigation area of ??the Riudecanyes reservoir. In addition, they have urged them to form a “common front” to pressure the Government and accelerate the execution of the project.
However, the territorial coordinator of the Camp de Tarragona of Unió de Pagesos, Pere Guinovart, has highlighted that although the objective of the territory must be to pressure to “declare emergency work”, the sector must be aware that “it has not yet the execution project has been drawn up”. “This means, at least, four or five months,” he stated.
“Our desire is to force the machine as much as we can, so that in 2024 we can irrigate,” Guinovart pointed out.
Some words that have also been shared by the mayor of Riudoms, Ricard Gili, who has assured that although the project does not arrive until 2025, the obligation of the territory is to “pressure for this to be done.” Furthermore, he has stated that it is a “structural problem”, since it affects farmers and also the general public.
The union has also asked that farmers receive some of the aid that was given during the pandemic, referring to the exceptional nature of the ERTOs. “We want our workers to receive the same treatment that was given during Covid-19,” demanded Guinovart, who added that the sector “has difficulty maintaining workers who, if it doesn’t rain, will go on unemployment.”
