The farmers of the cooperatives Coselva and Avellanera de la Selva del Camp (Baix Camp) will use reclaimed water from the treatment plant of the same municipality to irrigate. The City Council calculates that almost 800 m3 of water per day can be used after installing a new filter in the treatment plant to use tertiary water and fixing a pond to store it.
In this way, from the Consistory they hope to alleviate the effects of the drought in the hazelnut trees, after many farmers in the area have run out of water from the Comunitat de Regants del dam de Riudacanyes due to the scarcity of water resources. Both cooperatives celebrate this initiative that will serve as support irrigation to “save” the hazelnuts.
The Selva del Camp treatment plant opened in June 2019 and already contemplated the reuse of the water that is normally thrown into the stream. There are few WWTPs (Wastewater Treatment Stations) that have the necessary equipment to reuse water. In the case of the Selva del Camp, for the last two years, some 400 m3 have been used to irrigate trees, gardens and municipal parks, and to a small group of farmers in the town.
Since this week, the amount of water has doubled to also supply the farmers of the cooperatives. Those interested can approach the facilities with cisterns and load the water free of charge from an emergency raft conditioned for the occasion.
The municipal engineer of La Selva del Camp, Josep Lluís Esporrín, explains that with the installation of some filters they will be able to take advantage of “the maximum amount” of the regenerated water. Esporrín indicates that they already have this mechanism planned and that due to the current drought situation they have finished adapting the installation.
Both the City Council and the cooperatives insist that it is a water that can be used for agricultural use. Esporrín assures that they carry out weekly controls to find out the quality of the water and, depending on the use that is to be made, it has to be adapted to certain parameters or to one or the other.
From Coselva they alert that reclaimed water has higher salinity. “It’s at the limit to be propitious enough,” says the president of the entity, Antonio Domene, while recalling that the hazelnut tree is “very demanding with regard to water quality.” Despite this, as it is a single support irrigation cycle, Domene does not believe that it has any negative consequences on the trees. “The problem is the accumulation over long periods of these salts”, he concludes.
The president of Coselva recalls that the hazelnut “has some demanding water needs, from the month of March until the harvest.” From La Avellanera, the president of the cooperative, Josep Maria Garriga, fears that if this water is not used, the hazelnut trees will end up dying and that the “lack of product will affect the cooperatives.”
Taking advantage of reclaimed water for agricultural use is a growing demand among farmers. In fact, the Riudecanyes Reservoir Regants Community is demanding that the ACA adapt the Reus WWTP facilities to collect tertiary water for irrigation in a context such as the current drought.
