Farmers in Malaga province still without water seven months after devastating floods

The 13th November 2024 will be a date that Vélez-Málaga, Benamargosa, Comares and Cútar in the east of Malaga province will find difficult to forget. On that day, a heavy storm discharged as much as 268 litres in the upper area of Comares, causing the river to burst its banks and devastate dozens of farms, houses and several streets in Benamargosa and along the banks of the River Vélez in Torre del Mar.

Almost seven months later, the major damage has been repaired in most of the municipalities, but the problem continues in the countryside. In the area of the Benamargosa river valley, around 500 hectares of land are still without water from the La Viñuela reservoir, as the floods destroyed several large irrigation pipes.

The two farming communities most affected are those of the Benamargosa valley and the Benamargosa river, which together have some 1,300 hectares of cultivated area, mainly of subtropical crops (avocados and mangoes), although there are also numerous citrus and horticultural crops.

The damaged pipes run from El Trapiche (Vélez-Málaga) to La Zubia, which belongs to Cútar, along a route of more than twelve kilometres, known as Ribera Tropical. The repairs will entail an investment of around four million euros, three of which correspond to the Benamargosa river community and one to the valley community, according to Alfredo Moreno, spokesman for the Platform in Defence of Agriculture in La Axarquía.

Moreno explained to SUR that in the case of the Benamargosa river community, despite the fact that the damaged pipe was built by the Junta de Andalucía in the 1980s, the community members are having to assume the cost of the repairs. "We have tried to get them to finance it, even if only in part, but the Junta tells us that as it is for the use of the community, we have to pay for the repairs ourselves," he said.

The Platform in Defence of Agriculture in the Axarquía has pointed out that the repair work has been underway for several weeks, but due to the technical complexity, it is not going to be possible to repair the faults until the end of this month. "There are 500 hectares of crops that are in a very difficult situation," Moreno pointed out.

With regard to the public aid that the Andalusian regional government is putting in place for farms that were devastated by the floods, Moreno said that among the mandatory requirements for obtaining this aid, farmers must be able to prove that there has been a loss of 30 per cent of the total productive potential of the farm.

In his opinion, this is "very difficult in the Axarquía because the plots are generally small and separated from each other". The maximum aid to be granted is 42,000 euros per beneficiary and only farms with 100 per cent losses in the affected area will be paid. "We ask the administrations to reconsider these criteria," Moreno added.