The problem of water management as a fundamental resource for farmers and ranchers means for many families a continuing fight against speculation and theft of this precious liquid gold which takes away their bread and has an impact on the natural environment.
In this context, the Coordinator of Farmers’ and Breeders’ Organizations (COAG) of the Altiplano of Granada said the sector will not “stop until administrations stop looking the other way and take action.”
plundering of resources
At the heart of their demands: to put an end to “the plundering of the aquifers of Huéscar and to protect the irrigation of 400 hectares of farms» locals in this environment in the north of the province of Granada.
At the root of this problem is the proliferation of intensive crops by companies “coming from outside”a model also replicated in other regions of Spain, which addresses the injuries of small and medium-sized farms that are already suffering from climate change and drought.
Defense of the last aquifer
The head of the COAG of the Altiplano of Granada, Clara Torreblanca, thanked the thousands of people who participated last Saturday in the demonstration called by the Irrigation Community of Fuencaliente in defense of the spring of the same name, “the last aquifer in the Huéscar region“, with the support of the Huesca City Council.
Under the motto “For social, family and professional agriculture and livestock farming!“, the participants demonstrated against the uncontrolled wells that are drying up the spring of Fuencaliente, Huéscar.
Water Defense
COAG emphasizes that local farms “respond to a social and professional model of agriculture that affects the territory, since energizes the rural environment, generating wealth and sustainable developmentrepair the population and take care of the environment.
For COAG Altiplano de Granada, the support shown by the residents of Huéscar, Galera and its surroundings has meant “an additional motivation in the fight for water defense “This is the life of the region,” said the farmers’ organizations.
intensive irrigation
“No more theft of groundwater through wells by speculators“, Torreblanca said, referring to “foreign companies that come only to exploit our natural resourcesby buying arid lands and transforming them into intensive irrigation, at the cost of draining the aquifers with impunity, stealing groundwater “which is vital for our agriculture, the socio-economic engine of our territory.”
In fact, the farmers’ complaint Almost all water sources in the region are drying upas well as others that are rapidly decreasing, such as the case of the Fuencaliente spring, which went from a flow of 300 liters per second to not reaching 90.
For all this, COAG Altiplano “will not give up its efforts to fight for the defense of water and professional and social agriculturedemanding responsibilities from the administrations and definitive solutions that put an end to the plundering of public property in the region.
Monitoring and control
Irrigators from Húescar demonstrated last Saturday against the overexploitation of the region’s aquifers and They asked the administrations to “monitor and control big businessmen” that “they are emptying the aquifers and steal water from the springs, to the point that we found ourselves without water.
This was stated by the Fuencaliente Irrigators Community in statements to Europa Press, who promoted the demonstration from the Fuencaliente spring to the highway which connects Cullar to Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia).
In turn, Last Tuesday, the Huéscar City Council paralyzed the work of a company that was carrying out a water study for the irrigation of almond trees in the area around the Fuencaliente spring after detecting non-compliance with some of the requirements set out in the permit that had been granted, which was brought to the attention of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation and the Government of Andalusia.
