The worse for everyone, sometimes the better. The worst drought in recorded history in Catalonia has almost emptied the two swamps of the controversial Siurana-Riudecanyes system, between Priorat and Baix Camp.
The situation has left the Comunitat de Regants del Pantà de Riudecanyes without water for two years. They were only unable to irrigate in 1947, but then the controversial transfer from the Siurana River did not exist. Without irrigation or rain, part of the crops have died, most of them hazelnuts. Priorat, which also depends to a large extent on Siurana, struggles to guarantee drinking water and keep crops alive, with the powerful wine sector in trouble.
A borderline situation in both counties, in the context of the climate crisis, which forces us to look for solutions to one of the great water wars in Catalonia for its duration. On the one hand, the irrigators and the municipalities that have used the water of the Siurana-Riudecanyes system since the last century, with Reus (108,000 residents) at the head. on the other, the Priorat region, with the Platform for the Siurana River leading the fight against the transfer of the Siurana, a tributary of the Ebro River, to Riudecanyes, outside its basin.
For the first time in a long time, movements are taking place that could serve to bring positions closer together. The need to look for alternatives to the Siurana River, at minimum levels, helps.
The Community of Irrigators of the Pantà de Riudecanyes has had to take to the streets and stand behind the banner. They have done it with the Union of Farmers to ask the Government to process the project to use the water from the Reus treatment plant for irrigation as an emergency.
The plan would serve to guarantee 3 hm³ annually, 45% of irrigation needs. The problem is the calendar: 2026-2027. “Para entonces, if it doesn’t rain, I don’t know which farmers will be left; it would be a death sentence”, says Miquel Àngel Prats, administrator of the Riudecanyes Swamp Irrigation Community.
The use of wastewater from Reus has put on the table the possibility that irrigators would renounce the transfer of the Siurana to Riudecanyes, paralyzed by the drought. Another strategic move has also been put on the stage, for the Reus City Council to stop using the water from the Siurana-Riudecanyes, as it has necessarily done due to the drought. You have an alternative: water from the Ebro mini-transfer.
The renunciation of water rights by irrigators, with a legal concession that does not expire until 2060, is the main obstacle in the historic conflict. In Unió de Pagesos there are voices that would welcome the revocation of the Siurana transfer if irrigation water is guaranteed to farmers.
It will not be easy to open a formal dialogue, in a negotiation that should be supervised by the Generalitat, with the participation of the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE). La Taula del Siurana was a big fiasco in 2021.
Both reservoirs, Riudecanyes and Siurana, are included in the records of the internal basins of Catalonia (ACA). In Siurana there is room for 12.2 hm³ and in Riudecanyes 5.3 but between the two they do not now add up to half a hectometre. The Riudecanyes reservoir can only supply its town (1,300 residents) and the summer is worrying if it does not rain vigorously.
“You can talk and negotiate, we have never closed ourselves off, but there are very radical positions; When the other says all or nothing, it is very complicated. Yes, I see some movement,” says Prats (Pantà de Riudecanyes).
A representative of the Comunitat de Regants and another of the Plataforma pel Riu Siurana sat down a few days ago to discuss the management of the river in a debate organized by the Port of Tarragona. An unprecedented public and televised dialogue.
“The river and the Priorat need the water from the Siurana, Reus and the Baix Camp have ways of supplying themselves with less environmental and social cost”, insisted Oriol Ponti, from the Platform. “Giving up water rights is very hard, it’s the last thing. In exchange for what? Purified water and for the Priory to ask the administrations to fill their swamps”, answered Joaquim Barriach, representative of the Community of Irrigators.
In parallel, in the Priorat a table has been set up to seek the consensus of the region and its different actors before the drought. The initiative, of the County Council of the Priorat, joins the councils (9,300 residents); Union of Farmers (UP); irrigation communities; companies; wine and tourism sector; and environmental groups. In the Priory they are aware that it is crucial that the region goes to one to make their claims heard.
On the horizon of 2027, another project could be key: The Generalitat has presented a plan to deliver water from the Ebro to the Priorat, to the Guiamets and Siurana reservoirs. The plan generates consensus because it would partially solve the irrigation and lack of drinking water and would take pressure off the Siurana.
You look at it carefully from the Baix Camp. “If you could have the three Priorat reservoirs full, with 15-20 Hm³, the problem would be solved: Priorat happy; irrigators with water and guaranteed ecological flows. It would be a global solution,” says Prats (Regants de Riudecanyes).
