Junta de Andalucia to approve aid of €163 million to combat the current drought situation

A total of €163 million is to be approved by the Government in an effort to combat the current drought situation that is affecting Andalucia.

Following a meeting convened today, Tuesday, April 18, to discuss the drought in Andalucia, the Committee of Experts announced that aid of €163 million will be made available. This money will come directly from the Junta de Andalucia’s own fund. Of this total, €40 million will be allocated to direct aid for the agri-food and livestock sector.

Today’s announcement was made by the Andalucian President Juanma Moreno. He explained that the financial allocation of the Third Decree should be approved by the Governing Council next week, as reported by malagahoy.es.

He pointed out though that it will be necessary to wait for the next meeting of the Executive to know in detail the destination of this new economic item. The requirements that will be needed to qualify for direct subsidies by both agricultural and livestock producers are still to be clarified.

The meeting was also attended by three of the Government’s ministers. These were Antonio Sanz, Carmen Crespo and Ramón Fernández-Pachec. Mr Moreno reproached the central government for defining its hydraulic policy, about which he commented: “We do not know what it is”.

Moreno began with the observation that the autonomous community: “is experiencing a dramatic situation”, exacerbated by the fact that: “there are no expectations of rainfall for the coming weeks in a month in which traditionally there is usually rainfall”.

As a result of the lack of rainfall, together with the high temperatures that; “damage the lack of resources even more by increasing evaporation and increasing consumption needs”, the reservoir capacity of Andalucian reservoirs is at 29.41 per cent. He lamented that: “In some cases, such as that of Cuevas del Almanzora in Almeria, they are at 15 per cent”, a situation he defined as “dramatic”.

This lack of water: “is a major handicap, not only for Andalucia but for Spain as a whole, because we must not forget that we are the third largest national economy and the main agricultural and livestock producer in some sectors throughout the country”, Moreno continued.

Furthermore, the President stressed that this drought is also affecting: “sectors such as industry and tourism – with restrictions in some municipalities – which means that the forecasts indicate that we are going to see less growth in our Gross Domestic Product”.

It was for these reasons that the Junta approved the two previous drought decrees that involved: “the approval of €141 million that resulted in specific works either being executed or are in the process of being executed, with a percentage close to 72 per cent”.

Added to this is the investment of €1,500 million since 2019 in water policies: “only in the autonomous community, in terms of water purification (which saves on fines that we are paying for decades of neglect) and in high supply that affects 215 municipalities”, he added.

The president of the Junta de Andalucia demanded that the central government; “fulfil its investments, since it has 66 per cent of the management of Andalucia’s water resources, and that it fulfils its responsibilities”.

Among them, he highlighted the: “completion of the Alcolea dam, the transfer of the Tinto-Odiel-Piedras in the province of Huelva, and the repair of the desalination plant in Almeria“.

This would avoid situations he highlighted, such as that of the Olivargas dam, also in Huelva: “which has released ten times its capacity because it does not have the necessary infrastructures for its conservation and which we need so much”.

Moreno pointed to the lack of a clear objective in terms of “hydraulic policy” on the part of the central government. He cited how: “they tell us that they don’t like reservoirs, forgetting how, for example, the Melonares dam with 260 cubic hectometres of capacity has been able to save the province of Sevilla; nor do they like inter-basin transfers, which is why they have cut the Tajo-Segura, or desalination”.

“What do we do? Do we remove irrigation? Do we depopulate the villages?”, asked the president, who called for: “a response to the emergency situation that Andalucia is experiencing and for a long-term policy to be put into practice, with long-term plans”.

Finally, the Junta wanted to put into context the more than €300 million of regional investment needed to tackle the problem. Meanwhile: “the central government has allocated only €9.7 million in a single decree against drought and has approved a water PERTE, after repeated requests.

That has been allocated only €12 million to solve the problem of leaks in pipes, a problem that reaches 80 per cent in rural areas, a luxury that the Community cannot afford and that would require more than €70 million of investment Moreno explained.

The next Spanish Presidency of the European Union, which begins in the second half of the year, should be used, in the opinion of Juanma Moreno: “to take advantage of the opportunity and implement aid policies for strategic sectors which, in the case of agriculture, are facing the perfect storm, such as the lack of water, the increase in production costs and the requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy which are disastrous for the whole sector”.