SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, has warned this Wednesday that if the farms of the Aridane Valley are not irrigated soon, the economic losses will reach 60 million euros in two years.
In response to a question from the Socialist Group, he commented that it is necessary to avoid at all costs that the ‘seedlings’ die and for this reason, his department is working on the implementation of two portable desalination plants in Puerto Naos, on the coast of Los Llanos de Aridane, to be operational at the end of the week.
Valbuena has pointed out that the investment has already reached 4.5 million and indicated that together with the tanker of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which arrives on the island this Thursday, between 10,000 and 12,000 cubic meters of water can be pumped per day.
The counselor thanked the Navy and Air Force for moving the equipment to the ‘pretty island’ and insisted, however, that it is an “emergency work” whose objective is to guarantee “survival” of crops, not their production, which would require twice the amount of water.
In addition, he has commented that given the urgency of the situation, “decisions are made on the spot, without a project or document”, and an action that takes between four and six months can be completed in about two weeks.
Matilde Fleitas, from the Socialist Group, has valued the initiative of the Ministry to “provide immediate solutions” to the lack of irrigation for agriculture and has opened the door for the future of whether it is necessary that La Palma has desalination plants for agriculture.
