The Taco Mountain reservoir stores water since the beginning of March and guarantees the supply for irrigation during the summer on Isla Baja. It is currently undergoing re-waterproofing work with an investment of 1.7 million euros. This was announced by the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, to the farmers of the region during the visit made together with the insular Councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla.
“A ring technique” facilitates the filling and emptying of this pond, located in Buenavista del Norte, while the work continues, which should be completed in the first fortnight of next May. The works are divided into three phases. The first, the acquisition of the sheets; the second, the waterproofing of the first seven meters of height of the reservoir, with the aim of allowing the filling up to that level; and the third, the waterproofing of the remaining six meters up to the crown of the glass.
The Taco Mountain raft was the first to be built within the framework of the works programmed in the Northern Tenerife Raft Plan. Carried out between April 1983 and October 1985, It has a capacity of 821,739 cubic meters and a height of 13.70 meters of water for storage. It is also the largest irrigation water deposit in Tenerife, according to the island government.
After the visit, some twenty producers from Isla Baja and the island authorities held a working meeting. Pedro Martín points out that in it “we have collected ideas that I consider very interesting”. At the same time, and in an essential way, the president highlights that “we have put on the table the work that the Cabildo is doing and the new projects in which we are already working to guarantee the supply of water with quality and quantity.”
Counselor Parrilla stressed that “the solution” in terms of water for farmers on Isla Baja, as is the case with the rest of Tenerife, “is the contribution of reclaimed water.” He advanced that the Government of the Canary Islands is finishing a project, which will be delivered to the Cabildo, to transfer this type of water from the Valley of La Orotava, with a pipeline that will run from La Guancha to Isla Baja.
A large agricultural extension
This region is one of the areas with the largest agricultural area in Tenerife. In the production of bananas, “they exceed 800 hectares” under cultivation, “which implies that an average of 13 to 14 million cubic meters of water is required per year.” It is a quantity of water “that can never be satisfied only with what comes from the galleries. Therefore, the solution involves the promotion of reclaimed water and that is the line in which we are going to continue working firmly”. Along these lines, he recalled that the El Ravelo pond “guarantees daily consumption, with the 62,000 cubic meters of capacity that enter daily.”
The work on the Montaña de Taco raft is the fifth “drill work” related to the maintenance of the Tenerife rafts, after that of Valle Molina, in Tegueste; The Saltadero, in Granadilla; Llanos de Mesa, in San Juan de la Rambla, and Benijos, in La Orotava, currently underway.
The water of the Northeast will have better quality
The new drive system from the Marrero reservoir (La Victoria de Acentejo) to the Las Lajas reservoir will improve the quality of the supply water of La Vera-Carril, Los Altos-Arroyos and La Resbala. The Cabildo will invest almost 700,000 euros in it. This work will alleviate the progressive reduction in quantity and quality of water resources in the northeast of the Island and the increase in demand for supply and agricultural irrigation. The INSULAR Councilor for Sustainable Development, Javier Rodríguez Medina, explains that the Las Lajas reservoir is fed by the Aguamansa canal, “which has a high level of fluoride.” The contribution from the Marrero reservoir (La Victoria) will improve the quality of supply water. Something in which the mayor of La Victoria, Juan Antonio García, agrees, who pointed out that this work, which must be completed in seven months, will benefit the region, “with which progress is made in that marked objective of ensuring distribution systems that comply with the regulations and attend to the needs of the neighbors.”
