The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, through the State Mercantile Society of Agrarian Infrastructures SEIASA, has today signed an addendum to the agreement signed last year with the Community of Irrigators Viana I (Navarre), to increase to 13,175,000 euros (VAT not included) the investment planned to address the modernization works of this irrigated area, under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) Phase I of the Government of Spain.
In the signing of the addendum, held in the City of Viana and signed between the president of SEIASA, Francisco Rodríguez Mulero and the president of the Community of Regants Viana I, Jesús Mª Chasco Dueñas, the Government delegate in Navarra, José Luis Arasti Pérez and the mayor of the municipality, Yolanda González García, were present.
This increase in the budget of the “Viana I Irrigation Community Irrigation Modernization and Consolidation Project”, which initially amounted to 6,351,628.06 euros (VAT not included), is due to a review and update of the project initially planned.
The modernization will result in significant water savings, reducing the losses that were occurring in transport, thanks to the implementation of a pressurized irrigation system that will also guarantee the supply of water throughout the irrigated area.
The actions include the conditioning of the intake in the River Ebro, the construction of several pumping stations, distribution networks for pressurized irrigation, irrigation ponds and electrical installations.
Rodríguez Mulero explained that, after signing the agreement, “the project that existed for the modernization of the irrigated area was reviewed and the need to update prices and adapt the action to the real needs of the Community of Irrigators was established”, hence the budgetary increase. He has also confirmed that the new project is already in the process of being processed and the works can start before the end of the year.
Arasti Pérez expressed his gratitude, “especially, to the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas in the first person” because “these European funds should serve to structure the entire national territory and Navarre had to be part of this project, as he said, and this has been the case with the modernization of these irrigations of Viana”. The government delegate added that “all the parties have encouraged this project to become a reality” and encouraged the irrigators “to see in this investment, a boost to the economy of the whole region, not only of Viana”.
The investments of the PRTR’s “Plan for the Improvement of Efficiency and Sustainability in Irrigation” are public-private, so the public contribution will be a maximum of 80 percent of the cost of eligible expenses, while the communities of irrigators will contribute the rest. The project has been selected according to the requirements of environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, and implementation of new technologies required by the European Union for the application of the Next Generation EU funds.