Drought is a pressing problem in Andalusia, in a campaign with the greatest restrictions of this century. Practically not a drop of water has fallen, more water is discharged than enters and in the community there are a large number of people who live on irrigated crops.
From Andalusia several mechanisms have been activated to alleviate the problem this week: The Government has met today Tuesday the committee of experts and will approve next week the third decree will count the drought and the Plenary of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation took measures this Monday difficult for the field that restrict water for crop irrigation.
The president of the Junta de AndalucÃa, Juanma Moreno, has announced that next week he will approve a third decree against the drought with actions worth 163 million euros, of which the majority will be for infrastructure and more than 40 will go to aid measures for the agri-food sector, which suffers from this problem “determinantly”. This was stated on Tuesday after presiding over the meeting of the Committee of Experts against the drought at the Palacio de San Telmo in the face of a situation that he has defined as “dramatic” in the community.
In addition, Moreno rules out water cuts in the cities but foresees that, in the towns in the interior of Andalusia where they already suffer restrictions, such as Los Pedroches (Córdoba), they could be extended this summer.
For its part, the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) has had to make difficult decisions this Monday, specifically, it has approved a discharge of 385 cubic hectometres (hm3) for the irrigation of the crops of the General Regulation System, a campaign that has already started, which is 35.8% less than what was approved in 2022.
In this proportional distribution agreed upon by the plenary session of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Demarcation Discharge Commission, the most pronounced drop will be suffered by maximum crops, which receive 700 cubic meters per hectare compared to 1,750 in 2022 and the maximum of 6,000 that could be reached, which means 88% less.
“We have 80% of the basin in an emergency situation. The situation is delicate, complex and difficult to manage”, has indicated the president of the CHG, JoaquÃn Páez, who has indicated in statements to the media in Seville that “it has been one of the most complex commissions”.
“The data is very bad,” he points out, and recalls that “the last day that it rained and it rained very little was March 5, while in April it has not rained at all, with a contribution to reservoirs with a deficit of 70% in this hydrological year and reserves at 25.4%, that is, 36.5% less than the measure of the last 25 yearsâ€.
The President of the Board does not tire of asking the Central Government to undertake the necessary hydraulic works to alleviate the problem of the drought that has the community in check.
“If you don’t like the swamps, or the transfers, or the desalination of the water, what do we do? What is the government’s water policy?” of Experts.
Moreno assures that the State Government “has powers in almost 67%” of the water flows of the Andalusian territory. “There is an urgent need for a much greater commitment to the pending hydraulic infrastructures” and it is urgent “to accelerate the necessary investments so that Andalusia can have a water guarantee that gives greater capacities to guarantee water not only to our population, but also to our powerful productive sectors” , since “every year that passes without the State undertaking these works means weighing down the present and the future of our community,” he has claimed.
For its part, the Andalusian PSOE criticizes that these measures do not arrive on time. This has been expressed by the spokesperson for Agriculture of the PSOE-A, Ana Romero, who has regretted that the Andalusian Government is “late” to take measures against the drought and has disagreed that it has convened the group of experts the same day that it meets Parliament’s working group to tackle the drought.
“Measures against drought are adopted when there is water and not at a time as critical as the current one. It is urgent that Moreno Bonilla work at once and support the industry and the agricultural and livestock sector, in the face of a lack of water” Romero declared.
In addition, the spokeswoman has also criticized the fact that Moreno previously convened the same group of experts when he had already presented other measures against drought such as the SOS Plan (2022-2027), which she has attributed to the “tendency” of the president to be offering “big headlines”.
Rice is a very important crop in Andalusia, it produces almost 40% of this cereal in Spain and 10% in Europe. However, “planting is not guaranteed because it requires a discharge that we cannot currently commit ourselves to respect,” Páez assured the press, after having delivered this fatal news to those affected.
“We have told the representatives of the rice growers that with what we are going to give them, it will be 1,283 hm3 per hectare, right now, and due to the technical complication to adjust the discharges, not have losses and be as efficient as possible, it will be very complex for rice cultivation to appear”.
“However, we have also made a commitment to them that if conditions change, they begin to sow from May 15, we would see the possibility,” Páez pointed out.
When there is no water, every drop counts. In this sense, the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers of Andalusia (UPA) has asked the CHG for a “millimeter” distribution of water in what will be the campaign “with the greatest restrictions of the century”, and which is also expected to be “very complicated due to the stubborn drought that we suffer”, as indicated by the organization. “You have to look back and go back to the 1992/1995 period to have a similar situation,” they add.
For its part, the Association of Irrigation Communities of Andalusia (Feragua) has requested a plan for the availability of emergency wells to be able to save grove crops and they advocate undertaking some short-term works that will make it possible to have new resources, such as connections treatment plants and desalination plants ready for consumption, and some emergency projects that affect irrigation.
In addition, they propose a plan for irrigation ponds that allows irrigators and farmers to take advantage of the water from runoff (water that is discharged when it exceeds its reservoir) and have new resources to irrigate crops in their irrigable areas, an initiative that ” it would give time to be executed in a year and could be key for the next irrigation campaign in Andalusia,” they say.
