The Water Board of Almeria has described as “very negative for the Almanzora region” the decision of the Ministry for Ecological Transition of the Spanish Government to transfer only 7.5 cubic hectometres of the 20 that had been established in the Commission for the Exploitation of the Tagus-Segura Aqueduct. With this decision, “only water for human supply and none for irrigation” will be transferred.
The spokesman for the Almeria group and president of the Federation of Irrigators of Almeria, José Antonio Fernández, pointed out that “with this measure, the production costs of the irrigators of the Levante Almeriense will multiply because in order to irrigate exclusively they will have to do so with desalinated water which, as we all know, is much more expensive than that which arrives from the water transfer”. Similarly, the spokesman for the Mesa del Agua recalled that the higher cost of water must be added to the exorbitant increase in energy prices and other inputs that makes “all this large increase in costs will be seriously detrimental to irrigators Almeria Almanzora.
If production costs rise even more, “in this case with the price of water, the profitability of such a powerful and strategic sector for the province could be seriously jeopardised”. The position of the Water Board of Almeria regarding the Tajo-Segura water transfer is already known by Almeria society and has always defended its existence as a contribution for the irrigators of the Almanzora, who have also been demanding other contributions such as the repair of the Bajo Almanzora desalination plant in Villaricos, which has been unusable for more than a decade and which still has several years to go before it can start operating again. As is already known, the irrigators themselves are going to build another desalination plant to supply water to the irrigators.
