The Urgell canal puts an end this Saturday to the worst irrigation campaign in its 161-year history, marked by the premature closure, in April, of the main canal that left 50,000 of the 70,000 hectares that irrigate the infrastructure without water.
In fact, the only canal that will close will be the auxiliary one, which is the only one that has been able to irrigate without restrictions, since the main one has only been able to supply water for the survival of fruit trees.
Farmers speak of a "disaster" and report that in the fields where they were only able to carry out one irrigation shift, they have lost up to 70% of the harvest compared to a normal year. Given this, the sector demands compensation and a better distribution of water for future campaigns. The channel will reopen in March.
This Saturday the auxiliary canal closes, which is supplied by the Noguera Pallaresa and which has been able to distribute water normally during the campaign thanks to the good state of the reserves in this area.
On the contrary, the main canal, which is supplied from the Oliana and Rialb reservoirs, only distributed water for one month, at the end of April it closed urgently due to lack of reserves. In the middle of summer, the irrigators agreed on four irrigation shifts for the survival of the fruit trees thanks to the concession of 50 cubic hectometers by the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE).
The General Community of Irrigators of the Canals of Urgell has declined, for the moment, to make an assessment of the campaign, although sources close to Casa Canal indicate that they plan to take stock in the coming days.
The irrigators' assembly at the end of August agreed that, in future drought situations, water should be distributed equitably instead of prioritizing crops as has happened this year with fruit trees. Although some apple producers have lost 30% of the harvest due to the heavy clearing they did before knowing they could water the trees, the fruit that has been harvested in the area has presented excellent sizes and color.
Àlex Mas, a farmer from Linyola, did the last watering on a wheat farm the same day that the main canal was closed, last April 25.
The lack of water at the time of full growth of this winter crop meant that the grain did not develop correctly and, consequently, production plummeted and was only able to save 30% of the harvest compared to a normal year. . From a farm where he used to harvest 3,500 kilos per day, this year he has collected 1,000 or 1,500 "at most."
While this young 26-year-old farmer describes the irrigation campaign in the main canal as a "disaster", he speaks of a "normal" harvest in the auxiliary. In general it has been a worse campaign than expected "because we hoped to irrigate at least to save the winter cereal and not even that."
As for the next campaign, he trusts that the reservoirs will fill up and allow the crops to be saved. Otherwise, "the campaign will be worse than this one and one year we will cheat it, but two years I don't know if we will endure it," he concludes.
The spokesperson for the Gran Urgell Manifesto platform, Jaume Perera, has stressed that now we must work to compensate farmers of extensive crops and orchards who have not been able to irrigate, in the area of the 50,000 hectares of the main canal where only They have made survival irrigation for the fruit trees.
In this sense, he highlighted the "good relationship" they have with the Climate Action Department, which "has been with the sector from the beginning."
However, he has clarified that it is not enough and has said that what farmers need is not aid but compensation, because they have sacrificed themselves so that others can irrigate and that society and industry have access to water in a normal way.
Perera has harshly criticized the Ministry of Agriculture for having applied a "coffee for all" policy to distribute drought aid.
He assures that not a single euro has arrived in Urgell and Segarra-Garrigues and he does not understand that they have not yet received any response based on the fact that they are the most responsible for the Ebro basin through the management of the CHE.
Finally, Perera trusts that for the next campaign and future ones, farmers will have enough information at the right time to adapt to the possibilities and availability of water that will exist.
From his point of view, this year, the fact of not having water and having to survive with less watering has shown that in some areas, when there were no restrictions, "perhaps they overwatered."
With controlled irrigation in the fruit trees, it has been seen that the crops have been able to be harvested with less water. It is an "exceptional" situation but Perera points out that the important thing is to prioritize an "equitable" distribution for everyone until the modernization that will serve to optimize irrigation arrives.
The Oliana-Rialb system currently stores more than twice as much water as it did a year ago, in part thanks to the closure of the main canal that has helped maintain reserves during the summer.
Specifically, both reservoirs are around 20% of their combined capacity, while a year ago they were at 8.34%, according to data from the CHE. Thus, in one year they have gone from 40,696 cubic hectometers of water to 96,159, a figure still far from the 487,884 total capacity.
