Drought crisis
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Although last autumn and so far this winter have been more generous in terms of rainfall than in the last three years, Malaga's reservoirs still only store 174 million cubic metres, which means they are at just 28 per cent of their capacity. However, the figure is still 77 million cubic metres more than this time last year.
Now that most water restrictions have been lifted for households in the Axarquía, the focus is now on what is going to happen with the irrigation supplies for the coming summer from the Guadalhorce and La Viñuela reservoirs in Malaga city and the Axarquía respectively.
Farmers are beginning to make demands on the administrations for their allocations to be increased. This is the case of the Plataforma de Regantes de la Axarquía, a group that has emerged in recent years to defend the interests of the producers of subtropical crops, in particular mangoes and avocados, who have seen their allocations drastically reduced and in some cases cut off altogether due to the extreme drought that has hit the province and in particular the Axarquía.
Spokesperson Alfredo Moreno, a farmer from Benamargosa, explained to SUR that they have asked the Junta de Andalucía for at least six million cubic metres for the coming summer months, since last year they had three hectometres when La Viñúela's reserves were lower. They complain that the farming communities "are not being given any water from the reservoir, with the exception of last year with three million cubic metres for emergency irrigation".
In his opinion, three million cubic metres is not sufficient and he argues that more rain is forecast in the coming weeks. He says he does not understand "how the Junta de Andalucía still does not have a definite plan for the farmers to know how much water from the reservoir they are going to have for irrigation" this coming summer.
Moreno went on to say that farmers "feel marginalised, because when it comes to restrictions, they are only being applied in the agricultural sector". He added, "It is not acceptable that the water supply for the population, garden irrigation, street cleaning and filling swimming pools has been increased."
For the Axarquía's farming community, "If these problems are not properly addressed, the losses to agriculture will be even more enormous than those already suffered by the sector." Moreno also pointed out that "neither the state nor the Junta de Andalucía has yet provided aid for farmers who suffered damage to their farms in the Danas of October and November".
Moreno considered that the Axarquía "would have sufficient water resources if adequate infrastructures were built in the strategic areas of the rivers" and that a lot of the rainfall goes "straight to the sea" instead of being collected.
Moreno also said that farmers haven't received any aid for the drought and criticised the "enormous bureaucracy" involved in agriculture in the Axarquía, which he says is delaying, "in a bestial way the progress of the sector".
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