The president of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebro (Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge), María Dolores Pascual, has met today telematically with the delegate of the Government in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz, and the regional councillors of La Rioja for Sustainability and Ecological Transition, Álex Dorado Nájera, and of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural World, Territory and Population, Eva Hita, to talk about the immediate actions at the Soto-Terroba dam. The meeting was also attended by the technical director of the CHE, Francisco Hijós, the general directors of Environmental Quality and Water Resources, Rubén Esteban, and of Rural Development and Demographic Challenge, Nuria Bazo.
From a technical point of view, the CHE is going to tender, with a budget of 800,000 euros, two contracts for the adaptation of the drainage buffer bowl downstream of the dam and for the implementation of the auscultation data collection system. Once these actions were carried out, and with the authorization of the General Directorate of Water (Miteco), the reservoir would enter the loading phase.
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of La Rioja has indicated that it has been working and maintaining meetings with farmers and irrigating communities in the area, who need modernized irrigation to maintain their crops, so that before the end of the loading phase and its entry into operation, it will have an estimate and identification about the future users of the reservoir.
Likewise, Miteco, through the CHE, and with the help of the competent councillor in the environment of the Government of Rioja, has announced an environmental restoration action in the tail of the reservoir that minimizes the landscape impact in that area of the dam, also favoring the hydrological conditions of the infrastructure.
As for the territorial restitution actions, it has been proposed to deliver to the City of Terroba the treatment plant for the municipality that will be managed by the Consortium of Waters and Waste of La Rioja.