Subsidies needed to offset high cost of Almeria's desalinated water

THE Mesa del Agua de Almeria committee wants to be included in possible government subsidies for desalinated water.
The Mesa, which represents the irrigation syndicates that supply Almeria’s agricultural growers with water, pointed out that the Environment Ministry is contemplating subsidies for areas receiving water from the Tajo-Segura pipeline.
With these transfers cut back, these grants would offset the “brutal” increase in desalinating water owing to the cost of electricity.
They should also apply to Almeria province, the Mesa argued, calling on Madrid to fix a maximum price of 30 cents per cubic metre of water, as set out in the 2018 Water Law.
“We want the same treatment from the Ministry,” the Mesa’s spokesman Jose Antonio Fernandez Maldonado said. “And Almeria growers do not want to find themselves at a disadvantage compared with their colleagues in Murcia.”
Irrigation syndicates were having to increase their prices by between 30 and 40 per cent, he added, as producing a cubic metre of water was costing practically twice as much as in 2020.