Guzmán Robador | Alicante (EFE).- The biologist and ecologist Fernando Maestre Gil considers that the Tajo-Segura transfer “has an expiration date”, advocates the conversion of some crops from irrigated to dry land due to the scarcity of water resources and warns of the possibility of desertification of areas of Spain if it continues without rain and “if we continue using water as we have been doing”.
‘Alejandro Malaspina’ National Research Prize in the area of Natural Resources Sciences and Technologies 2022, Rei Jaume I Prize in Environmental Protection 2020 and distinguished researcher from the University of Alicante (UA), Maestre Gil has made these reflections in an interview with the EFE Agency at a time when our country is experiencing a climatic situation characterized by a lack of rainfall in a large part of its territory.
He acknowledged that he sees “the current situation of drought with great concern, since it occurs simultaneously with abnormally high temperatures and with a state of our groundwater bodies that does not stop deteriorating.”
contamination problems
At present, “more than 40% of our aquifers present pollution problems (by substances such as nitrates) and/or overexploitation”, has revealed this expert, who has become a great benchmark in Spain due to his numerous and important advances in the study of biodiversity and ecology of drylands.
“If it continues without rain and we continue to increase water consumption by irrigated agriculture, as we have been doing up to now, there is a real risk that different areas of our country will become desertified. Those that are most at risk are those in which drought is combined with an increasing use of water, especially in agriculture”, he indicated.
reduce irrigation
Maestre Gil, a native of the Alicante town of Sax, also believes that “the irrigated area must be reduced.” This happens, he has detailed, due to “a moratorium on the implementation of new irrigation systems and the conversion of some of these crops to dry farming”.
“To do this, we must take into account the consumption of water and crops and the social return thereof, prioritizing those that generate more employment and redistribute wealth more effectively,” he pointed out.
He has stated that “reducing water consumption involves reducing its use in agriculture, which consumes more than 80% of all the fresh water used in Spain”.
According to the researcher, “it is also imperative to reduce food waste. A part of the harvest is thrown away before being marketed because it cannot be sold, which often happens when the market is saturated due to excess production.
What would happen to the transfer?
Asked if he considers the Tajo-Segura transfer necessary, Maestre Gil has opined that “it has an expiration date”.
“The climatic records allow us to know that in the last twenty years the precipitation in the Tagus basin has been decreasing. Future projections suggest that there will be less and less rainfall in the basin, something that is added to the evapotranspiration derived from the increase in temperature ”, he specified.
And he added: “Let’s not forget that a good part of the transfer runs through an open-air channel, through which the water evaporates. Like it or not, there will come a time when the transfer must be closed. And that will not be at the whim of the government in power with the intention of aggravating our region, but because there simply will be no water to transfer. We have to start preparing for the future.”
Regarding the desalination plants, Maestre Gil explained that they are “a resource that is going to be used more and more as the contributions from the transfer are reduced and the aquifers are more depleted.”
The risks of drought
When asked if there is a danger that the aquifers will be used if the high temperatures and the lack of rainfall continue, this expert has assured that “without a doubt there is a very real risk” that the drought worsens “the battered situation of our groundwater, since they are going to be further exploited and overexploited” if the current weather conditions persist over time.
When questioned about what he would propose to the political parties that attend the next local and regional elections in May and the general elections in December to alleviate climate change, Maestre Gil replied: “It is essential to reduce our total water consumption.”
“This necessarily happens by limiting irrigation, carrying out infrastructure works to take advantage of resources that have not been used until now (such as storm tanks), using more purified water in agriculture and adapting our towns and cities to the climate that we are already experiencing. beginning to suffer”, has proposed. EFE