More than 300 community members mobilize in the face of “the lack of response” from the Confederation to their demands to attend to crops and livestock
The Campo Alto Irrigation Community, which brings together 327 members from the northern districts, asks the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) to formally assign it the use of water from the Cabezo de las Minas canal, for which it has an annual allocation of precarious 250,000 cubic meters. It also demands from the basin organization an alternative to the use of the Don Gonzalo-Humbrías aquifer, from which it obtains 7,000 cubic meters each year and which will be definitively closed in 2027 because it is depleted. As its president, Juan García Corbalán, told LA TRUTH, “our situation is up in the air and there is a lot of insecurity and uncertainty among farmers in the area due to the scarcity of water resources.”
He explained that the irrigation community is assigned 402,000 cubic meters of water, “of very poor quality”, between that of the canal, that of wells and that provided each year by the sewage treatment plant. In addition, thanks to the collection of rainwater in the facilities of the old La Paca treatment plant, this year they will be able to store an extra 50,000 cubic meters of very good quality and at no cost to users.
The community members also ask the CHS that 60,000 cubic meters of their total endowment can be used by the 27 livestock farms in the area to survive, since until now only agricultural use is allowed. “We presented the project four years ago, but there has been no progress” and “this is our livelihood,” said Corbalán, who regretted that the basin organization continues to delay them. In the last meeting held in May with the president of the Confederation, Mario Urrea, in which the mayor, Diego José Mateos, was present, “they told us that the problem was going to be solved”, but that has not been the case.
Those affected announce a rally in front of the City Hall to obtain the support of political groups
He announced that those affected will undertake demonstrations so that their demands are met because “it is not possible for them to treat us in this way, it is disrespectful.” They plan to gather before the City Council to request the support of municipal groups and then go to the headquarters of the CHS “until they pay attention to us.” According to Corbalán, in the high districts rainfed crops predominate, such as almond trees, olive trees and aromatic plants that “are not demanding with water, but we need a minimum flow.”
The president of the Red Thyme Association, Antonio José Pérez, elaborated that “we are all small farmers, we have started a fight to get a good product that adapts well to the land, but we need the Confederation to reflect in a document the quantity at which we have the right to have security; We’ve been waiting a long time.”
The harvest of the aromatics, which already has a hundred producers, has begun in the high districts with the marjoram and in the coming weeks the thyme harvest will begin. Despite the fact that they lost 30% of the harvest due to excess humidity due to the intense rains of recent months, they hope to obtain a “very good quality” product that they trust will compensate for the losses. Producers are beginning to sell their essences in Canada and to open markets in Germany and Poland for the marketing of fresh rosemary and thyme for food.
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