The Catalan Water Agency (ACA) is studying emptying the Riudecanyes swamp (Baix Camp) in order to irrigate and save the hazel trees of Baix Camp and Tarragonès. In this way, 0.26 hm3 of water would be poured out of the 0.34 hm3 that currently remain. This measure could be taken in the next few days, according to ACN.
However, drinking water for the municipality must first be guaranteed, since Riudecanyes is supplied only from the reservoir. Climate Action sources assure that the priority is drinking water. For this reason, next week, a company will prospect to open a new well. At the same time, Climate Action is negotiating with the Catalan Forestry company to remove the fish to avoid their mortality if the swamp is emptied
Since the previous mandate, the City Council is studying the possibility of supplying itself with groundwater, “being self-sufficient”, says the mayor of Riudecanyes, Ernest Rogié. In addition, the government team is carrying out works to fix the access to the water tanks so that they can be reached by tanker trucks.
They contemplate that as the amount of water in the swamp decreases, it will lose quality and it will be necessary to dilute it with external water. They are two projects that have been working for at least two years, they say, although they acknowledge that the drought situation “has accelerated” them. This Friday, June 30, a meeting between the ACA and the City Council is scheduled to address this issue.
On the other hand, the Community of Regants of the Pantà de Riudecanyes is preparing a technical document to carry out emergency irrigation, tender the project and carry out the works in order to be able to use the reclaimed water from the Reus treatment plant. Sources from the Comunitat de Regants explain that it is a job that the Department of Climate Action should do, but that if it is from a public entity it would not be awarded until autumn.
The irrigators calculate that they will have to build between seven and eight kilometers of pipes to pump the water from the treatment plant to the Riudecanyes community network. This infrastructure would not be finished until August, a few “crucial” weeks for the hazelnut growers. For this reason, they plan to be able to use the water that remains in the swamp beforehand.
