Probable water shortages

[Drax]

As reported by Guillermo Mirón in La Voz yesterday:

Farmers who irrigate their land will have the opportunity to give their views to central Government and the Junta regarding the critical situation that they and the citizens of the region could experience if, in August, as it is foreseen, the tap of the Negratín-Almanzora  pipeline closes.

Sources in the Government Subdelegation have confirmed that on June 25 there will be a meeting of the Commission of the Transfer of Negratín-Almanzora, of which the Central Government, the Junta de Andalucía and the users of this infrastructure, managed by Aguas, are part.

Irrigators will once again convey their concerns to the institutions, as they have done in the previous two years without having been heard or, at least, have translated into policies and initiatives that provide alternative resources to ensure the water in the Levante and the Almanzora Valley when the transfer is closed due to the low levels of the reservoir.

Among the claims is the commissioning of the desalination plant of Cuevas del Almanzora or the use of the Carboneras desalination plant, both dependent on the central government. Meanwhile, irrigators have also requested the Board to grant them permission for the provisional exploitation of aquifers in Alto Almanzora while this emergency situation is maintained.

Field and human supply
The Negratín-Almanzora transfer is vital for the agribusiness sector of the Almanzora region because it depends on irrigation of more than 24,000 hectares. The paralysis of the Negratín-Almanzora transfer already meant in the summer of 2017 that almost 50% of the agricultural production in the Almanzora region was lost, where the entire production area could not be planted. In addition, municipalities such as Albox or Olula del Río depend exclusively on this transfer for the human supply of quality water.

It must be remembered that if the transfer from the Negratín is suspended, it would be added to other losses such as the 15 Hm³ for irrigation that hasn't been supplied from the desalination plant at Cuevas del Almanzora, and is unused since the floods in 2012.

[frankie]

I am surprised that Olula is stated as needing an additional supply as I always understood they also had water from the massive reservoir under our village, Somontin, the same as Purchena.
I bet there will be no shortage of water in any of the coastal resorts this summer, even if the crops are left to die...  Cannot have visitors unable to shower or the golf courses left to wither...