The Junta de Andalucía it postpones, for the time being, activating any restriction measure in the water supply when the province’s marshes are at 55% of their possibilities, which would guarantee two years of supply to the population.
They store 350 cubic hectometers of water. With no rainfall in sight … the Board has authorized this Friday an extraordinary irrigation for the Guadalhorce orchards.
It begins next week and it will continue during the second half of this month of January. ASAJA considers that it was urgent due to the lack of rain and with trees that required water, especially for the citrus harvest of this region.
In the rest of the province there is concern about the highest capacity reservoir in the province: La Viñuela reservoir is 30% of its capacity. It is the one with the worst situation.
The the Lemon tree in the capital and that of Single house slightly exceed 40%.
Situation that begins to be very delicate for agrarian groups, but also for some municipalities that were confident that the pre-alert for drought would be activated at the end of December.
The Councilor for Sustainable Development of the Board, Carmen Crespo, ensures that they will wait a few months waiting for precipitation that can alleviate the situation.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, Carmen Crespo, stressed that the “Andalusian Government meets” with the objective set by the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, and it is acting “in all the municipalities that registered difficulties” as a consequence of the DANA of September 2019, which affected the provinces of Almería, Granada and Málaga. In this regard, Crespo has highlighted the importance of environmental restoration work in the channels of Andalusia, since it is a “land affected by climate change and we have to be prepared for these episodes”, which could be re-registered in the Autonomous community.
The head of Sustainable Development has visited this morning, together with the mayor of Antequera, Manuel Barón, the drainage channel of Laguna Herrera, where they are being carrying out hydromorphological restoration work of this channel. The tasks, which are carried out in this municipal area and in Villanueva de la Concepción, are included in the block of actions called ‘Comarca de Antequera’, whose global investment amounts to 756,000 euros.
Carmen Crespo explained that, in total, 179 channels are being operated in Andalusia to solve the incidents of the storm registered last year, of which 41 are in Malaga (23%). Regarding investment, this province concentrates almost the 30% when collecting works for 4.3 million euros (15.5 million euros in total in the Autonomous Community). “We are acting where there really are problems and in order to avoid greater evils,” said the counselor, who has described these tasks as a “historical action” since, in some cases, these are measures that have not been carried out for decades.
Specifically, the environmental restoration actions in the Malaga province affect 41 channels that, in total, total 210 hectares. These zones have been divided into four action blocks that bring together the channels depending on their location (‘Alto Guadalhorce’, ‘Comarca de Antequera’, ‘Bajo Guadalhorce’ and ‘Málaga Litoral’).
As for the works of the ‘Alto Guadalhorce’, more than 1.2 million euros are destined to improve the conditions of various areas located in the municipal terms of Archidona, Villanueva del Trabuco and Villanueva del Rosario. Both in these areas and in the tasks of the ‘Comarca de Antequera’, actions are contemplated in riverbeds and margins to restore riverbank vegetation, recover hydraulic capacity and, in some cases, reduce bottlenecks in road works in order to minimize the risks of floods.
Among the tasks carried out are, mainly, selective clearing, pruning and removal of dead trees and plugs, as well as reinforcements with breakwater of those sections where there may be a risk of collapse.
Bajo Guadalhorce and Malaga coast
After this morning’s visit to the Antequera region, Carmen Crespo will move this afternoon to the dam of the El Limonero reservoir, from where the action that is being carried out in the Guadalmedina river bed can be observed. These tasks are included in the block called ‘Málaga Litoral’ along with other areas that, added to the ‘Bajo Guadalhorce’ works, involve intervening on a total of 156 hectares (29 channels) with an investment of 2.2 million euros .
The section ‘Bajo Gudalhorce’ includes actions in areas of the municipalities of Alhaurín de la Torre, Alhaurín El Grande, Cártama and Coín, for a global amount of 1.3 million euros; while the channels of ‘Málaga Litoral’ are located in the territory of the capital and Vélez Málaga and their investment amounts to 900,000 euros.
Regional work
The head of the Environment area of the Andalusian Government has highlighted the high economic amount that the Andalusian Government allocates to resolve incidents of DANA at the regional level (48 million euros) acting in various fields. “These are many resources aimed at preventing floods, helping neighboring farmers and making progress on environmental issues, since when the channels are hydromorphologically restored, invasive species are eliminated and native species are protected,” he explained.
A total of 2,100 hectares of land in the region will be operated with the aim of recovering the hydraulic capacity of the channels and prepare them for avenues that may come in the future so that they can evacuate as much flow as possible. Likewise, these tasks also pursue the recovery of the ecological functionality of these areas.
The works contemplated in the riverbed restoration plan launched by the Andalusian Government after the DANA 2019 have been awarded, As Carmen Crespo has commented, 22 companies “close and who know the circumstances of the territories” affected by the storm. In this way, the Ministry intends to promote job creation in the area.
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