Irrigation from the Campilhas dam, in Santiago do Cacém (Setúbal), canceled again this year due to drought, revealed the managing association, criticizing the possible increase in the price of water in Alqueva.
the reservoir is, at this time, with a level of storage “that makes us very concerned in view of the agricultural year” that starts “in a few months”, highlighted today to the Lusa agency the deputy director of Ilídio Martins.
The Campilhas dam, that “had 3%” of water storage at the beginning of winter, has “at this moment 12%”, needed the responsible, adding that this situation, yet, “does not allow [a] irrigation campaign” this year, scheduled between April and October.
“Average precipitation in the region is in the order of 600 millimeters” and, in the last years, is located “in 300 [mm], which is half of what it should rain, He stressed.
According to the head of the association, based in Alvalade-Sado, in the Santiago municipality of Cacém, this scenario of little rain and “less and less water to irrigate” has been going on “since 2013”, affecting between “50 to 70 farmers” of Vale de Campilhas who produce rice, corn and pasture for the animals.
The Association of Irrigators and Beneficiaries of Campilhas and Alto Sado (ARBCAS), responsible for the Campilhas dam, provides water for irrigation 6.000 hectares in this municipality and in the municipalities of Odemira and Ourique, no Beja district, through several reservoirs, such as Campilhas and Monte da Rocha.
On the other hand, in Alto Sado and at the Fonte Serne dam, which receives water from the Alqueva reservoir, and where will they be planted 2.500 agricultural hectares, the association said it feared that the possible increase in water tariffs by the Alqueva Development and Infrastructure Company (EDIA) force us to rethink the agricultural campaign.
“There is a proposal from EDIA to the ministry in charge to move from 00,301 [euros] to 00,709 [euros], which is a 136% increase”, argued Ilídio Martins. To the Deputy Director of ARBCAS, it is an “extraordinary thing”, taking into account that “inflation is in the 8 a 9%”.
If you go ahead with this proposal, EDIA “more than doubles the price of the water that we are going to buy in the small area that we manage to benefit from”, further penalizing “farmers who are already losing money” and who “needed some help from state agencies”, mourned.
“The proposal is for the current irrigation campaign and there was not even prior notice” to the organizations, added the head of the association who, coming soon, will “put this extraordinary increase in the tariff for consideration by members” to know “whether they want water or not”.
in a statement, the National Federation of Irrigators of Portugal (Fenareg) claimed to be "in a state of shock" with the "indecent" proposal to double the water tariffs presented by EDIA and claimed the intervention of the Government.
“The irrigators are in a state of shock and consider the proposed revision of water prices and the contingency plan for irrigation presented by EDIA at the meeting of the Council for the Monitoring of Irrigation in Alqueva to be indecent., last day 01 of February", reads in a statement from Fenareg.
According to the federation, “this price revision proposal doubles the water tariffs for irrigation”, in what he says is a “situation in all respects unacceptable, which condemns the use of water for the vast majority of agricultural crops, with serious consequences for the agricultural sector., the national economy and territorial cohesion”.
News: Lidador Notícias/ Agroportal
