Agricultural growers buy Alicante water

AGUAS DEL ALMANZORA supplies irrigation water for 24,000 hectares of fruit and vegetables that are grown in the open-air.

Following the suspension of the July transfer from the Negratin reservoir, the company has had to turn to the desalination plant in Torrevieja (Alicante) to acquire 12 cubic hectometres of irrigation water.

The agricultural growers, who described their situation as “desperate” to the local Spanish media, are now paying 75 cents for a cubic metre of irrigation water, an all-time high.

To add insult to injury, they said, their counterparts in the Guadalquivir, Jucar and Segura basins are sometimes paying less than 10 cents.

Aguas del Almanzora, which supplies both irrigation and domestic water, had to juggle supplies to ensure that growers have at least a minimum for their spring and autumn crops.

“Owing to the current drought we expected the Negratin water to be cut in June, but fortunately the El Portillo reservoir sent water and we stretched it a little further,” said Aguas del Almanzora’s vice-president Fernando Rubio.