The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, through the State Mercantile Society of Agrarian Infrastructures (SEIASA) is going to allocate 84,653,517 million euros (VAT not included), of the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), in the modernization of irrigation in the autonomous community of Aragón.
In this framework, four irrigation modernization actions are planned, two in Phase I of the PRTR and another two in Phase II, from which a total of 1,240 irrigators will benefit, cultivating 14,850 hectares in the provinces of Huesca and Zaragoza.
CONVENTIONS SIGNED TODAY
In relation to the two actions that correspond to Phase II, the agreements to activate the projects have been formalized today in Huesca, in the amount of 49,143,517 euros (VAT not included). To this end, the president of SEIASA, Francisco Rodríguez Mulero, has signed two agreements with representatives of the irrigation communities of Sector X and Sector XI of the Flumen Channel and the Community of Regantes Nuestra Señora de la Alegría, both in the province of Huesca.
The event was attended by the Deputy Director General of Irrigation, Natural Roads and Rural Infrastructure of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Cristina Clemente, the Government delegate in Aragón, Rosa María Serrano and the Government subdelegate in Huesca, Silvia Salazar.
On the one hand, 40,181,250.40 euros (VAT not included) will be invested in the “Project of improvement in water use and energy saving for the irrigation communities of Sector X and XI of the Flumen Canal through modernization and capture of water at a higher level to avoid pumping”. This action will benefit 457 irrigators who cultivate 6,731 hectares in the municipal areas of Salillas, Huerto, Alberuela de Barco, Lalueza, Capdesaso, Albalatillo and Sariñena, all of them in the province of Huesca.
The actions of this modernization project consist of the replacement of the current system with pressurized irrigation in Sector X and the installation of pipes for the supply of water with natural pressure for both sectors. The new infrastructure will allow, on the one hand, a significant saving of water and fertilisers, thanks to more efficient management, to which remote control will contribute and, on the other hand, energy, since irrigation pressure systems are no longer necessary, particularly by means of diesel engine pumps. It is thus expected to reduce the energy costs borne so far by the irrigators and, at the same time, the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Meanwhile, the “Modernization Project of the Community of Irrigators Nuestra Señora de la Alegría de Monzón”, has a budget of 8,962,267 euros (VAT not included). This action will benefit 185 irrigators and 762 hectares of the municipality of Monzón, in the province of Huesca.
The purpose of the action is to replace the current system of ditches with a new, more efficient pressurized irrigation network to the plots, and to avoid the pumps currently carried out by some irrigators in their particular facilities. To this end, a regulating pond and a filtering and pumping station will be built that will reach another pond of new construction, higher, from which the water will be supplied by gravity to the entire irrigated area.
The project also provides for a solar photovoltaic plant for the supply of energy to the facilities and the integral control of the operation of the entire system (ponds, pumping station and irrigation network) through remote control, which will mean significant savings of water, fertilizers and energy costs.
35.51 MILLION EUROS IN PHASE I
The two projects that are the subject of the agreements signed today add to the two actions already committed last year within the framework of the “Plan for the Improvement and Efficiency of Sustainability in Irrigation” of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) Phase I. Of these, the action of the Community of Riegos Right of the River Flumen (Huesca) is already in progress and the project of the Community of Regantes Nº V of the Riegos of Bárdenas (Zaragoza), is in the drafting phase. Both add up to an investment of 35,510,000 euros (VAT not included).
In addition, last Tuesday, another agreement was signed in Lleida to activate the “Project of integral modernization of the irrigation communities of Vincament-Vilaró, Litera-Persio, Serós, Litera-Vincament and Serrabrisa Montfret, which affects, in Huesca, the municipality of Fraga, in addition to other municipalities of Lleida. This project has a budget of 17.115.253 euros (VAT not included).
All these actions are co-financed by Next Generation funds of the European Union and their public-private nature means that the public contribution will be a maximum of 80% of the cost of the eligible expenses, while the communities of irrigators and users subject to the action, will contribute the rest.
ARAGON: 233 M€ IN IRRIGATION MODERNIZATION
With the addition of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, an investment of 233 million euros (VAT not included) in the modernization of irrigation is planned in Aragon, coming from the actions planned within the PRTR Phases I and II (84.65 M€) and those entrusted to SEIASA through other channels (148.44 M€).