Rural workers and livestock farmers from the Northeast of the Island are calling for, among other measures, the use of the Llas Peñuelas reservoir, located in the municipality of Tegueste, to alleviate the drought affecting the countryside, especially in the midlands. This was expressed at a meeting of the Agricultural Board with the Primary Sector councillor of Tenerife Island Council, Valentín González, who promised to explore the possibility
The Las Peñuelas Irrigation Network is owned by the island Corporation and was transferred to the Tegueste Town Council through an agreement signed in 2007. Since the stipulated conditions were not met, the municipal obligation to return the facilities to the island administration if it couldn’t manage the irrigation network or provide its services to the farmers in the influencing areas. The request is for “action to be taken and measures to be implemented to recover this vital infrastructure for Tegueste”. The councillor stated that he was unaware of the terms of the agreement and pledged to refer the matter to the legal services. According to the farmers, this is the current situation.
Valentín González listened to the sector’s needs and concerns regarding the Water Emergency Declaration on May 29 and how it affects the region and Tegueste. He informed about the two hydraulic infrastructure projects planned for the municipality. One aims to bring recycled water to Mesa Mota, while the second aims to develop an irrigation network in Tegueste. No specific dates were provided.
The projected timelines for the completion of the expansion works at the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) also sparked discussion. “It is urgent to finish the works as soon as possible,” state the producers.
Other works that the sector deems “priority” include the activation of the tertiary treatment at the El Chorrillo WWTP, which would allow the transfer of quality recycled water from Santa Cruz to the northeast region or the water boosting project from the Valle Molina Pond to the Mesa Mota Irrigation network.
These sources point out that “Tegueste Town Council has a budget of 12.6 million Euros for 2024, clearly insufficient to address the urgent and necessary measures to improve the water infrastructure aimed at enhancing the hydraulic performance of the networks and reducing water losses, which amount to 22%, equivalent to about 17,000 m3 per month”.
The producers believe that “there are also insufficient resources for a significant improvement in municipal sanitation to increase the connection rate to the sewer system and the volume of treated and recycled water”.
“The water that irrigates our region comes through channels from galleries in the south and north of the island, and we are the last recipients of the network,” they value. Therefore, they urged the councillor “to prioritise the need to urge those municipalities, which, according to the Island Water Council report, have network losses exceeding 50%, to carry out repairs and improvements to hydraulic infrastructures, with the aim of minimizing losses and increasing the available water for irrigation in our region”.
The farmers “reject the idea that inefficiency on our part is the problem in water management. The political managers must set the course.” They criticise that the Irrigation Office, “largely unknown,” does not provide “workshops and talks at farm level to advise those in need.” They denounce “lack of agility in emergencies” because “it is a pity to wait for the land to be abandoned, which ends up being a potential fire hazard, before taking action.” Additionally, “summer is just around the corner, and both in Tegueste and the rest of the island, the countryside is drying up.”
Sources emphasise that “well water and gallery water are essential for our region.” In this sense, they point out that “the channels from the Güímar Valley (Araya and Río-Portezuelo) and from the North are almost exclusively used to supply the Town Councils. And we don’t receive any water, because those councils have long-standing unresolved significant losses. With the water they are losing, we could have our territories covered with crops producing food.” They also have doubts about desalination: “Who ensures that by desalinating seawater, we wouldn’t be consuming such a high energy cost, only to lose the water in the urban supply networks.” They believe that “municipalities must urgently connect houses to sewage systems. In this regard, they point out that ‘the Espinal Ravine WWTP is designed for 7,000 m3 per day, but only 4,000 enter because the houses are not connected to the network’.”
They understand that “it costs nothing, as the water is already in the island’s system, through the channels and pipes.” Water supply in Tenerife comes from groundwater sources by 75 to 80% (60% from galleries and 40% from wells). They indicate that the former “do not require energy consumption as they are at altitude, and the water flows by gravity.”
In conclusion: “Without water, there is no life, but dealing with this severe drought issue in our fields does not involve restricting urban consumption or praying to saints or virgins while looking at the sky but rather everyone pitching in and taking immediate action.”
Free Water for Island Farming
The Tenerife Residents’ Alliance advocates for “free water for agriculture” and “preventing significant losses in networks and speculation with this essential asset.” This group proposes “not using water from treatment plants for agriculture since the water has quality issues due to the industrial process it undergoes, and desalination plants have high costs. Instead, they request “using water extracted from galleries.”
