Approved emergency works on the C.Tropical to combat the drought

person Posted By: Manolo Mateos On:

Emergency works on the Costa Tropical to combat the drought

Béznar and Rules reservoirs: canalisations that do not arrive



Every self-respecting Sexitano shudders every time he goes up to Granada and sees how there are two underused lakes that could boost the economy and guarantee the future of the westernmost part of the coast of Granada.



Almuñécar: your drop counts




The catastrophic circumstances experienced by farmers in the area of La Herradura due to the lack of water or elements that allow the water stored in Béznar Rules to be pumped or channelled is a historical claim that verges on the Kafkaesque.


Time passes in Almuñécar and there is no change


The different administrations have spent decades avoiding providing a solution to the lack of water resources, which has a direct impact on the local economy and above all on the subtropical farmers in Almuñécar and La Herradura, who are always looking up at the sky and are fed up with seeing their crops dry up and their plantations being lost.


Almuñécar drought: the wells that irrigate the vega are salinised




The Junta de Andalucía is trying to fix, with a succession of urgent measures, to allow the development of essential hydraulic infrastructures with which to promote the water reaching the different facilities.




In this line, the Governing Council of the Junta has approved the extension of the drought decree, with a package of aid that will allow huge investments to fix the lack of supply in municipalities throughout the regional network.



weather in almuñecar



The subtropical farmers of Almuñecar are asking for alternatives against the drought



The investments approved by the Junta de Andalucía, will allow the creation of new water elements by means of regenerated water through the execution of tertiary treatments in the Almuñécar and La Herradura treatment plants.



The Councillor for Agriculture, Fisheries, Livestock and Sustainable Development, Carmen Crespo, has highlighted that we are talking about a "very finished" decree that will "alleviate" the circumstances of farmers, etc. The file establishes the exemption of fees and tariffs for those farmers who see their endowment reduced by 50% or more.


This is a measure that will be applied to the regulation and usage fees for 2022. In addition, they propose the opportunity to defer it for one year or split it into two payments, in the case of the regulation fee and the use fee for a certain tax period, at the request of the farmer, without generating interest or requiring guarantees.




The regime of exploitation of groundwater, reclaimed and desalinated water is also fixed.




Authorising the drilling of boreholes or taking over pre-existing ones to supplement and ensure the efficient use of facilities that enable the strategic supply of drinking water for human consumption.


Malaga reservoirs, Granada reservoirs


The Celia squall and the latest rainfall have slightly alleviated the situation in the Viñuela reservoir in Axarquia and the contributions to the Béznar and Rules reservoirs have increased. The reservoirs managed by the Junta are at 43% of their total, an increase of 10% more than before the last episodes of rainfall, but still 12% less than the capacity of the reservoirs at the same time a year ago.


Regenerated water must be used whenever it is available for use, as it is a strategic resource in times of drought. In addition, all methods are given priority in relation to the provision of desalinated water elements.




Use of tertiary treatment in Almuñécar


Tertiary wastewater treatment is the last step in the process of reducing the pollutant load of wastewater so that it can be used in agriculture or discharged back into nature, either in a river bed or in suitable places.




While these actions are being carried out, the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa Tropical has made available to the irrigation communities of Almuñécar and La Herradura the facilities of the council's WWTP to provide the essential pumping to irrigate their crops with the treated water from the tertiary treatment plant.





However, there are discrepancies about how to manage this resource, as there are irrigation communities without official allocations that would not be able to use it.



A study by the UGR indicates that in the case of discharge into the Río Verde riverbed, only 19% of this water could be captured for agricultural use, since marine intrusion in the Río Verde aquifer is such that it would be a priority to make contributions to stop it.




It should be remembered that one of the characteristics of the Río Verde aquifer, and to a lesser extent of the Río Jate aquifer, is its composition of coarse-grained alluvial material, which does not impound water.


It should be remembered that one of the characteristics of the Río Verde aquifer, and to a lesser extent the Río Jate, is its composition of coarse-grained alluvial material, which does not hold water, so that both marine intrusion in the event of restricting freshwater inputs, and the "cleaning" of this, is usually quite "fast" in comparison with other aquifers with a more silty or clayey composition.




Almuñécar: the worst drought since the 1990s



It seemed like a distant memory, but the most experienced locals remember with tears how entire plantations of avocado and custard apple trees had to be cut down in our area due to the drought that salinised wells and wreaked havoc on the economy of the Sexitania region.



According to the Mancomunidad, irrigators who apply to the Junta de Andalucía, the competent authority for irrigation water, and obtain authorisation, will be able to irrigate their fields with purified water from the tertiary treatment plant at the Almuñécar WWTP, installing the main pumping system in the WWTP installations, land that the Mancomunidad is providing free of charge.




Forecasts predict that 2,000 hectares of subtropical crops, mainly avocado and custard apple, will be lost.





The news of the awarding of the contract for the drafting of the project for section 3 of the pipelines of the Béznar-Rules reservoir system gives hope to the farmers of Almuñécar and La Herradura, but let us not forget that it is very likely that they will be late as usual and on top of that they will be delayed, as they have twelve months to draw up the construction project.


At present the irrigators of Jóvenes Agricultores de La Herradura have water with a conductivity of 1488 nanoSiemens and 291 chlorides, the irrigators of San José have 1231 nanoSiemens and 184.6 chlorides and the irrigators of La Marina are not much better off. It should be remembered that from 1600 onwards the avocado plant (depending on the rootstock) begins to reduce yields and above all to suffer biologically.