For the first time in its 161-year history, the General Irrigation Community of Canals d’Urgell, which supplies 120,000 people and 70,000 agricultural hectares in Lleida, has closed the floodgates of its main canal. From now on, only water will flow to supply the municipalities and water the trees once a month so they don’t die. For the first time, the community ends irrigation in April due to the shortage of water reserves in the marshes of the Segre, Rialb and Oliana rivers.
Yesterday, before noon, 23 cubic meters of water fell per second; at twelve noon, 12, and at eight in the evening, only two.
“We must guarantee, once the irrigation campaign is over, the supply of the population, we supply 30% of the province of Lleida and also the survival of the trees”, says the general director of the Comunitat de Regants del Canals d ‘Urgell, Xavier DÃaz.
On Monday, a few hours before the closure of the floodgates in Ponts, at the Regional Council of Pla d’Urgell, in Mollerussa, mayors and presidents of the affected regions, Segarra, Urgell, Garrigues, Segrià and Noguera agreed a letter that will be received by the neighbors appealing to everyone’s conscience not to use more water than necessary to avoid restrictive measures.
“We want to convey that the most important thing is the responsibility of each person, to get the message to everyone, that no one should overlook that we have a critical situation, and that, therefore, people make rational use of water, turn off the tap more”, insists Rafel Panadés, president of the Regional Council of Pla d’Urgell, mayor of Poal and representative, in Casa Canal, of the municipalities that drink water from the Urgell canal.
“The idea is – adds the president of the County Council – to become aware of things such as, if you have to clean the car, turn off the tap while soaping; don’t fill small plastic swimming pools every day and use the municipal one, or reuse the water from cleaning the lettuce to water the plants”.
The closure of the main channel affects about 50,000 hectares of crops out of the 70,000 that it irrigates; the remaining 20,000 hectares are not affected by the closure because they receive water from the Noguera Pallaresa river, which is not in such a critical situation.
26,000 hectares of winter cereal will no longer be irrigated, around 6,500 of summer cereal, 7,500 of alfalfa and the 9,500 of fruit trees will have survival irrigation.
“This is a tragedy. It’s dramatic. Farmers react well because they are good people. But it is as if a worker expected to receive 2,000 euros and received nothing or received 100 or 200. That is why we anticipated. We have asked the administrations for help”, he says. The president of the channel, Amadeu Ros, insists that it is time for the administrations to get involved: in a few days they will all come to see us, “Savaldor Illa (first secretary of the PSC) has come; next Thursday, the minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat, Teresa Jordà , and the president of the Generalitat, and we have also asked for the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, to come.”
Farmers talk about the drama they live through. Jaume Pedrós, trade unionist of the Union of Farmers, produces cereals in Linyola. “A significant part of my operation will have no income. As always we are asking. This year there is no hope.” Similar situation also in Ivars d’Urgell. Bernat Ramon is 34 years old. Grow fruit trees. “It is a situation of sadness and nerves. Now we, the farmers. But it will affect everyone, the shortage will also be seen in prices”, he says.
And in Castellserà , David Borda, a trade unionist and also a fruit producer, regrets that the swimming pools are full and the farmers cannot irrigate.
Meanwhile, the Segarra Garrigues canal, with more efficient irrigation and which consumes less, has filled the ponds these days in the hope that the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebro (CHE) will continue to supply it in May with what it consumes and save these reserves for in June They don’t have it guaranteed.
