VALVERDE (THE IRON), 11 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, through the State Commercial Society of Agricultural Infrastructures SEIASA, has signed an agreement this Wednesday with the Community of Irrigators of the Gulf, managed by the El Hierro Island Water Council, to address works of modernization of sustainable irrigation on the island.
The ‘Project for the modernization and improvement of the irrigation network of the Gulf, TM La Frontera, El Hierro Island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife’ will involve an investment of 4.88 million euros (IGIC not included) and is developed within the framework of the ‘Plan to Improve the Efficiency and Sustainability of Irrigation’ of the Phase I Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The agreement has been signed between the president of SEIASA, Francisco Rodríguez Mulero, and the president of the Insular Council of Waters of El Hierro, Alpidio Armas.
The planned actions will consist of the construction of a 20,000 cubic meter capacity tank and two pumping stations to pump water for irrigation, from the El Golfo WWTP and from the Pozo de los Padrones, as well as the installation of a complete remote control system.
The area affected by the modernization covers 259 hectares in the municipality of Frontera and the improvements will benefit 511 irrigators.
In addition to increasing storage capacity, the planned actions will allow farmers to reduce energy costs by avoiding driving all the irrigation water to the La Frontera pond, dividing the irrigation flows by level, the Ministry reports in a note.
The objective is to improve the water and energy efficiency of the area, optimize the use of available water and increase the competitiveness of production.
In total, the Canary Islands will receive 65.46 million euros (IGIC not included), distributed in two phases within the framework of the Plan for the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience of the Spanish Economy.
16.15 million euros will be allocated to the first of them, in which the action object of the agreement signed this Wednesday is circumscribed, while the amount for the pre-selected works for the second phase will be 49.31 million.
In each of them, four and five actions have been planned, respectively, to optimize the use of available water and increase the competitiveness of productions.
For his part, the president of SEIASA, Francisco Rodríguez Mulero, recalled “the Government’s commitment to sustainable irrigation, which allows us to save on water consumption, reduce energy use and respond to the climate challenges we face , promoting an even more efficient and sustainable agricultural activity, from the triple economic, social and environmental variant”.
