Junta de Andalucía to announce water supply and irrigation plans in view of increased reserves

Eugenio Cabezas

Thursday, 20 March 2025, 16:36

The abundant rains that have fallen over the province in recent weeks have brought a significant relief to Malaga, alleviating the state of serious drought. With that in mind, delegate of the regional government Patricia Navarro anticipates the reduction of mandatory supply cuts to a minimum for the province's two large agricultural districts, the Guadalhorce Valley and Axarquia. However, to achieve that, the government will still employ the wide usage of reclaimed water, in addition to the new resources.

Thanks to the rains, reservoirs across the province have reached above 53% of their average capacity, to the point where up to three of the seven reservoirs saw it necessary to start releasing water a few days ago. In the coming weeks, the Junta's drought committee is expected to release official figures in the assessment of the drought situation, before any decisions about how the new resources will be used are made. Allocation of water for supply and irrigation is still pending.

During her visit to the La Viñuela reserve, Navarro addressed long-lasting concerns in the agricultural sector.

"Regenerated water is here to stay," said Navarro. "The difference is that now we have this additional resource that we didn't have before." The regional government's delegate explained that reclaimed water will still make up a large amount of the water used for irrigation, but the difference this time is that it will be mixed with newly accumulated water from the reservoirs.

This 'cocktail' of different supplies are a step in improving the quality of the entirely reclaimed water supply for irrigation, of which farmers in the Axarquía have been complaining. According to them, reclaimed water is not only up to seven times higher than reservoir water, but it is also of lower quality due to the high levels of salinity. Farmers have previously stated that this has led to "impoverishing" the quality of the farmland and the loss of entire avocado plantations.

Asked whether the irrigation communities are going to be 'obliged' to use reclaimed water, Navarro said that "nobody is obliged to use it". "When reclaimed water is granted, it is done because farmers and irrigators ask us to do so," she explained, adding that the operational cost of regeneration systems is too high for them to be used without demand. She also highlighted that it is a great advantage to be able to use reclaimed water, as well as water from the dams.

Navarro stated that she is expecting favourable conclusions after the drought committee, which will be held in a few days. She acknowledged the "very painful" restrictions on irrigation in the past few years, which has led to difficult decisions. With the current state of water welfare, there is an opportunity to "recover 100% of the economic activity" in the Axarquia - an area sustained by agriculture.

Another question that Navarro addressed was the plan to improve the infrastructure for water storage. Work is currently underway to build two reservoirs, one in the Benajarafe and one in Cerro de la Encina in Almayate, and expand the irrigation areas that supply from these two will reach.

"We are not going to stop investing in improving the quality of irrigation water, but we will also invest in renovating pipelines and connections.," said Navarro, stressing that Andalucía should always be prepared for droughts. For that reason, one of the regional government's main objectives is to increase the capacity of existing dams and set up an extended storage system, instead of wasting rain water by releasing it in the sea, especially after a period of such severe drought.

In view of the latest episodes of overflowing rivers and floods, Navarro stated that the regional government will work towards the improved storage goal, not only to prepare for future droughts, but to also avoid the need to deploy emergency public resources.