Work is progressing on the adaptation of the irrigation system of the Huerta del Ebro Irrigation Community in Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza), the first of the actions planned in Zone 2 of the LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project, the Osera de Ebro – Fuentes de Ebro section.
The scarcity of winter rains has allowed progress to be made on the work, but unfortunately it is detrimental to crops. For this reason, temporary irrigation has been set up in the fields surrounding the works to save crops, in agreement with the irrigation community and in keeping with the Project’s spirit of participation and cooperation.
This action is being carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of the Government of Aragon through the public company TRAGSA, with a budget of 1,156,749.93 euros.
The purpose of the works is to move the existing irrigation network away from the defense dike. In its current position, there were affectations and cuts in the supply when there were breaks in the mote. In addition, there will be a change from an existing infrastructure built by means of an open-cut trench in the ground to a buried concrete pipeline. Thus, together with a greater adaptation to the flooding of the Ebro River, by preventing the irrigation ditch from being an obstacle to water flow, it also increases the efficiency of the irrigation system, reducing losses and maintenance work.
Remaining Zone 2 shares
In addition to the work already started, further interventions are planned to reduce the damage due to flooding. In the first phase, the narrowing will be reduced and river space will be recovered by recessing two sections of the defense dike, moving them away from the channel in the meander of Aguilar and the mejana del Conde. This project has already passed the public information phase and will be executed by another of the partners, the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) with a budget of 2.9 million euros.
The expansion of the river area will be completed with the environmental restoration of the land recovered for the riverbed, through the planting of riparian vegetation, which will be carried out by the Government of Aragon.
In the second phase, currently at an advanced drafting stage, one of the most innovative interventions of the LIFE proposal is proposed: the creation of the so called
buffer zones for lateral flows.
These buffer zones will compartmentalize farms in areas that will be pre-flooded in a controlled manner during flood episodes, generating water buffers that will minimize damage to farms and infrastructure when there is a generalized overflow. Here we have taken into account the processes already underway to modernize irrigation of the entire orchard, by the Irrigation Community of the Huerta del Ebro, and the action that goes with it of land consolidation, by the Government of Aragon.