Spanish irrigators defends water planning in Brussels
The National Federation of irrigators communities (FENACORE) defends in Brussels to the European authorities the second cycle of water planning to avoid a possible revocation of the plans of the Tagus and the Ebro, to those who have raised their complaints to the European Parliament arguing that do not meet Community legislation on the environment.
In fact, this European high-level meeting responds to the consensus report that the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament wrote after his visit last February to the Ebro and the Tagus, after receiving formal complaints mainly related to fixing environmental flows and regulation works.
While critics of these plans, which obtained a higher 80% support the National Water Council (CNA) – tildan insufficient minimum flows, the fact is that water reserves to ensure the river ecosystem were defined by applying both strict scientific criteria and technical. Thus, in the case of Ebro, even it circulates Delta an amount greater than the minimum guaranteed (286 m3 / sec when the minimum is set between 80 and 150 m3 / second).
Moreover, in this second cycle substantial improvements even supposed to significantly reduce water availability for other uses such as irrigation were adopted, demonstrating that all those involved in achieving the plans aim to respect the rivers and recover waterbodies. Thus, the Plan Tagus, for example, doubles the current strategic minimum reserve of reservoirs of Entrepeñas and Buendia, from 240 cubic hectometres 400 hm3.
Spain needs reservoirs because naturally regulates only 8% of the rains
In the case of hydraulic works, that much opposition raised among environmentalists because of its possible negative effects on the environment, Fenacore remember that represent the solution to minimize the effects of climate change, and ensure water during periods of drought, especially in a semiarid climate as posing Spain. In this sense, while Europe has a natural regulation that allows you to store 40% of the rains in Spain this percentage only reaches 8%, which becomes essential reservoirs, provided, of course, be viable and comply with European standards.
Responding to opposition groups calling for the search for alternatives to intensive irrigation to reduce water consumption, the Spanish delegation argued that, as indicated by international organizations such as FAO, 2050 agriculture will have to increase production by 60% and 100% in the developing country, this is only possible with irrigation, if only represents 15% of the utilized agricultural area, contributes 60% of the final production because it produces up to six times more than the dry land.
In this regard, they stressed the economic effort that both irrigators and public administrations have been making over the past 25 years through the modernization of irrigation systems to use fewer resources. Specifically, this public-private partnership has made it possible to reduce by more than 14% the use of water for irrigation, thanks to the transformation of traditional irrigation of surface drip systems, which already account for more than 49% of the total irrigated area, which places Spain as an international benchmark.
According to the president of Fenacore, Andrés del Campo, “although, of course, everything can be improved, these plans represent a stable framework with which to carry out safely, organized and conflict-sharing complex of water in Spain, which with about 30,000 billion cubic meters it has to meet all the demands. In addition, this deal is done under technical and not political criteria, which is the only way to guarantee the general interest on localism “.
Source: FENACORE
