Madrid (EFE).- The national drought table will meet this Wednesday in Madrid to analyze the historical situation of lack of water in the country that threatens agricultural and livestock production.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco), the autonomous communities, Agro-food Cooperatives of Spain, the agricultural organizations Asaja, COAG and UPA will be represented at the table. , as well as the national federation of irrigators (Fenacore).
Minister Luis Planas has already advanced this Tuesday, after the council of ministers, that the Government’s intention is to have the necessary technical data and make a diagnosis on the “prioritization of areas and sectors in relation to the impact of drought ”.
Said diagnosis is “prior to any decision that we can adopt”, explained Planas, who has insisted, however, that they will give answers in the short term “depending on tomorrow’s meeting”.
In any case, he has defended the need to continue betting on sustainable irrigation that uses less water, even in “difficult circumstances like the current ones”.
Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha, among the most affected
At the regional level, the case of Andalusia stands out, one of the most affected by the lack of water, which will arrive at the meeting after announcing that it will approve next week a controversial third decree against drought endowed with 163 million euros, at the same time that asks the central Executive to approve another for state basins.
In Castilla-La Mancha, they are in favor of the European Commission authorizing the use of rural development funds to help farmers face the drought, while in Murcia they have demanded exceptional measures from the central government as soon as possible.
But not even the northern regions will attend the meeting with nothing to demand because yesterday the Cantabrian Government asked that the lack of water suffered by the cornice be also taken into account.
The northern communities are noticing that lower rainfall in the volume of forage available for cattle, which has been reduced.
Irrigators ask for a national decree
Meanwhile, irrigators have called for a national decree to alleviate the effects of water scarcity or to set up emergency wells to save crops.
Water stress in Spain continues to worsen due to the notable decrease in rainfall, with an average of only 3 liters per square meter in the first twelve days of this month of April, while the water reserve continues to drop, reaching 50 7% of its capacity.
As of today this month is being “extraordinarily dry”, they have pointed out from the Meteorological Agency (Aemet), to qualify that, until now, the driest April in the historical series is that of 1995, with 23 liters per square meter accumulated throughout the month.
In the global computation of the hydrological year, the average value of accumulated rainfall from October 1 to April 11, 2023 is 334 liters per square meter, which represents around 21% less than the corresponding normal value. to said period (425 liters per square meter).