“What gives life to the Ebro delta and energizes it are the two large irrigation canals. The lagoons and the two large bays (Alfacs and Fangar) receive fresh water, life, from the rice fields. Everything pivots through the life generated here: mussels, fishermen or the tourism sector. If you cut off the water, you cut off the cycle of life.” The reflection was made yesterday on a rice field, waiting for the arrival of irrigation water, a farmer dedicated to this crop for thirty years.
He himself showed yesterday (in the image above) the growth of the rice plant, still tiny, in a field sown dry a month ago. They knew nothing of the restrictions. Before the apple snail infestation fifteen years ago, rice fields were always flooded with fresh water and then planted.
Dry planting will help without having foreseen it (planting planning is done every year in winter) to save a month of irrigation water. Afterwards, the paddy field has to be kept flooded until the end of the summer. Half of the 22,000 hectares of paddy fields will be planted dry. In 2022 it was already 30%.
The rice fields began to flood yesterday with water from the two channels, on the right and left of the Delta. It is a day loaded every year with symbolism that the drought disrupts.
When the water is released, an operation with 150 years of history, fresh water begins to transform thousands of hectares of fields; extraordinarily dry this year due to lack of rain.
The restlessness is palpable among its neighbors, accustomed to rowing against the current. Especially among those who depend on agriculture, but also on shellfish, linked to the contributions of fresh water to the bays, their food, or fishing. The Federation of Mollusc Producers of the delta de l'Ebre has also launched the alert.
Other sectors that do not depend on irrigation water for their subsistence, such as tourism, observe the unprecedented situation with concern. The fresh water is for the wetland, so close to the sea, a manna that runs through the kilometer network of canals, passes through the fields and feeds almost all its natural spaces. It has a great impact on its ecosystem, one of the richest in southern Europe, with beneficial effects on biodiversity, with 360 species of birds.
“The environmental factor that favors flooding is postponed for several weeks if now it is sown dry. For many birds, some from Africa, starting to breed in June is too late," warns ornithologist Cristian Jensen, environmental advisor for the Trinitat salt flats. “It will also have consequences on underwater fauna. We can foresee that with less fresh water, the water in the natural areas of the Delta will be of less quality, and this will have negative effects. The situation is increasingly worrying, ”he adds.
The lack of foresight is key and generates outrage. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) announced a few days ago that the supply of water was reduced by half. The two irrigation communities are warbling. In summer, if there is no water, the consequences for all sectors will be catastrophic. The entire rice crop could be lost.
Another farmer, Pedro Bosch, the son of a rice farmer, released water for the first time yesterday in one of his fields. "We have never seen anything like it," he says as the water begins to transform a dry and apparently arid terrain. “Without fresh water, all of this would be a desert. People are very scared, we will suffer a lot”, comments Forcadell, president as well as the governing board of the Parc Natural del Delta de l'Ebre, with all the socioeconomic sectors represented. "We will work to use every last drop, so that the water performs its ecological function," says the director of the Climate Action Department in Terres de l'Ebre, Jesús Gómez.
The arrival of water from the canals transforms the deltaic landscape. Everything changes when a landscape is flooded until 24 hours ago the color of dry earth. The magical beginning of the rice cycle makes mirrors appear in the fields thanks to the irrigation water and, in a few weeks, the electric green of the rice plant will emerge.
