The Segura Hydrographic Confederation will receive 10 million euros to immediately start up the strategic battery of emergency pumps, in order to deal with the drought, within the package of measures approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers to increase the water availability. As published by LA VERDAD, the basin organization has activated the surveys that will be carried out in ten bodies of water, to extract up to a maximum of 121 hectometres per year in an emergency situation.
Likewise, the Council of Ministers will allocate 44 million euros in the coming years to increase the reuse of reclaimed water in the Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa treatment plants. These are the main measures approved to increase water resources. Seven other river basins will also benefit from tax exemptions on the regulation fee, which is not the case of the Segura demarcation. These aids will be for the irrigators of the Guadalquivir, Ebro and Duero who have suffered a reduction in their water supplies of more than 40%.
More desalination and reuse
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition will modify the law to promote the reuse of urban water in order to increase it by 150%, up to 1,000 hectometres. It plans to reuse 20% of all wastewater in Spain, a percentage far exceeded in the Region of Murcia, where almost one hundred percent is reached.
The aid and investments approved by the Government add up to 2,190 million euros to alleviate the consequences in the field of droughts and floods that it considers will be “increasingly frequent.” The agricultural organizations Coag and Asaja consider the measures insufficient. UPA asks for more extensive aid.
Specifically, aid for the primary sector amounts to 784.2 million euros divided into ten measures. The objective is “to ensure the production of the sector and thus supply food.” In this way, the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, wanted to make it clear that a sufficient supply is “necessary” so that there are not “new consequences on prices”, as has happened with oil, which has suffered serious price increases In the supermarkets.
Coag points out that in the Region there are trees that are drying up or practically dead in many plantations
To these aids for the sector are added 1,400 million for investments and improvements in hydraulic infrastructures throughout Spain. On the one hand, 700 million to act in the hardest-hit basins, reductions in water regulation and use fees, 36 million for emergency pumping, and 600 million for Acuamed to build new desalination plants in Catalonia, Málaga and Almería powered by photovoltaics .
On the other hand, direct aid to farmers and ranchers amounts to 636 million euros in the face of losses due to drought, as well as 100 million in fiscal and liquidity aid. In addition to subsidizing up to 70% of the cost of the insurance policies for the crops most affected by the lack of water, 355 million will be delivered to the meat and milk livestock sector as it is “one of the most affected”. For its part, 5 million euros are allocated to beekeeping, and an aid fund of 276.7 million is established that allows the Ministry of Planas to offer new subsidies when necessary depending on how the drought situation evolves.
The drought advances
The agrarian organization COAG considers the measures of the royal decree approved this Thursday by the Government to mitigate the impact of the drought in the sector “insufficient”, indicated its general secretary, Miguel Padilla. They claim to have “from now on” direct aid for cereal growers, “who in many cases will not reap any harvest.” He assures that this is “the most expensive planting campaign in history with the shortest harvest of the century.” The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-Asaja) also considers the measures insufficient. The president of Asaja, Pedro Barato, emphasized that there are many areas in the country where “absolutely nothing will be grown this year.” In his opinion, this package lacks concrete aid for important crops such as woody crops where “not only the fruit, but also the tree” is in danger.
The agricultural organizations warn that 80% of the field is already affected and demand direct aid, especially for the dry land
From UPA they valued the “speed” with which this royal decree has been approved, but they recommended that the Government “define very well” the farms to which this aid is directed, with the family members who live from it being the “priority”. The general secretary of UPA-Murcia, Marcos Alarcón, said that the measures have to respond “to the proposals and approaches made at the Drought Table.” They must include “direct aid, tax credits in direct estimation of personal income tax, exemptions in irrigation fees and Social Security, authorization of relief risks and flexibility of the CAP.”
Drought is a widespread problem throughout Spain. COAG’s calculations suggest that the lack of water already suffocates 80% of the field and produces irreversible losses for the primary sector. Their data indicate that in just one month the percentage of territory affected by drought has gone from 60% to 80%.
One of the most affected crops is dryland cereal, of which more than five million hectares have already been lost. In the last month, the area lost has increased from 3.5 million hectares to 5 million, the document says. Thus, the analysis carried out by COAG considers the wheat and barley crops to be lost in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Aragon, the Community of Madrid, Catalonia and Castilla y León.
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In addition, in the fruit farms of Andalusia, Murcia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia, irrigation restrictions seriously threaten the viability of the trees and many farmers will be forced to uproot. Likewise, in the Region the trees are drying up and are “practically dead” in many plantations. They are not the only crops in serious danger, but COAG indicates that irrigation is also greatly affected in this community.
For Greenpeace, the measures approved by the Council of Ministers “are necessary but clearly insufficient.” He considers that the plan contemplates measures in the fiscal, labor, financial and hydraulic fields, which can help to alleviate the impacts momentarily, but do not prepare Spain for the serious water problems that it will have to face in the future, due to the impacts of climate change, he says.
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