Andalusia Increases Reservoir Capacity for Irrigating Olives

As part of a major mod­ern­iza­tion pro­gram in Spain, the capac­ity of one of Andalusia’s main water reser­voirs has been greatly expanded from 200,000 cubic meters to 511,000 cubic meters.

The newly-inau­gu­rated plant, Mirabueno II, in Palma del Rio, has been her­alded as a cru­cial infra­struc­ture improve­ment to sus­tain agri­cul­tural irri­ga­tion in the region.

Four hun­dred eighty-two farm­ing mem­bers of the ​“com­mu­nity of irri­ga­tors of the canal of the right bank of the Genil river” will have access to the expanded reser­voir. Its avail­abil­ity should cur­tail the impact of the ongo­ing drought in the Mediterranean Basin and improve the local agri­cul­tural community’s resilience to cli­mate change.

Carmen Crespo, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Junta de Andalusia, noted that the new reser­voir would sup­port more than two thou­sand hectares, includ­ing olive groves and cit­rus and almond trees.

The crops sus­tained by the smaller reser­voir ver­sion include cot­ton, corn, water­mel­ons, toma­toes and other veg­eta­bles.

Among the advan­tages of the new reser­voir are the antic­i­pated water qual­ity improve­ments for irri­ga­tion. Mirabueno I tends to be clogged by mud, but Mirabueno II will now be acces­si­ble for bet­ter clean­ing and fil­ter­ing.

By con­tribut­ing €2.2 mil­lion, the Junta cov­ered 55 per­cent of the pro­jec­t’s total costs. Additional pri­vate funds will make up the dif­fer­ence. Crespo noted the impor­tance of pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships in ren­o­vat­ing the region’s water infra­struc­ture.

Crespo has also stated that the work on the La Colada-Sierra Boyera pipes is on sched­ule.

“Our goal is to con­tinue to stay within sched­ule for such works which are so rel­e­vant for the north of the Córdoba province. If all goes smoothly they should be com­pleted before the end of the year,” Crespo noted.

Other works cur­rently planned in the region include the ​“irri­ga­tors com­mu­nity of the Guadalmellato Marsh in Córdoba,” which will ben­e­fit an area of 718 hectares, pro­vid­ing water sav­ings of 26 per­cent.

“Such improve­ment is cru­cial in a con­text of struc­tural drought like the one we live in Andalusia,” Crespo noted, as reported by el Dia de Córdoba.

Besides the water reser­voir expan­sions, local author­i­ties sup­port the expan­sion of renew­able energy plants for the farm­ing com­mu­nity.

As reported by Córdoba Buenas Noticias, the min­is­ter cited the new four-megawatt (MW) pho­to­voltaic instal­la­tion as one of the lat­est projects. It will serve sev­eral areas in the province, such as Santaella, Montalbán, La Rambla, Montilla and Puente Genil.

As a whole, Crespo noted that the local author­i­ties invested €100 mil­lion dur­ing the last leg­is­la­ture to mod­ern­ize the irri­ga­tion sys­tems. In her words, such works have allowed Andalusia to save 12.17 cubic hec­tome­tres of water as 43 irri­ga­tion com­mu­ni­ties have already started ben­e­fit­ing.

The local min­is­ter also stressed that new funds are com­ing from the Ministry of Agriculture to cur­tail energy depen­dence on irri­ga­tion, impact­ing more than 24,000 hectares of irri­ga­ble area.

• El Dia de Cordoba
• Cordoba Buenas Noticias