Seville, (EFE).- The Government and Ecologistas en Acción have shown surprise this Friday at the request made by the Junta de Andalucía to the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) to make the discharge of the Agrio reservoir coincide with the pilgrimage of the Rocío for the pilgrims to cross the Vado del Quema.
It has been the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, who in statements to Antena 3 has been “surprised” that the Junta de Andalucía wants to put “a medal” on the request for the release of water for the sprinklers to cross the river Quema, and has indicated that “it is not a good year for the Board to pronounce itself like this.”
For the minister, said request is in line with “contradictory messages”: “One cannot complain that there is a drought and simultaneously make a request of these characteristics,” Ribera clarified, to recall that the Board “had never made a pronouncement So”.
“Fabulous” and “frivolous” petition
Ecologists in Action has also described this proposal to cross the ford, located in Aznalcázar (Seville), a Guadiamar pass and one of the most emblematic rociero transit points of the pilgrimage, where the baptism takes place, as “amazing and frivolous”. symbolic of the new pilgrims, where some 60 brotherhoods are expected to pass this year.
“The frivolity of this decision is unparalleled when we are in the middle of one of the worst droughts on record, which together with the extreme temperatures, never recorded in spring, are moving us definitively to the scenario of global warming a thousand times announced. ”, the ecologists have pointed out.
If it occurs, they point out, “the sprinklers will have their postcard secured, the irrigators will continue to have water that could soon be vital for human consumption and Doñana will continue as in recent years, dry above and salty below, which will cause that the sprinklers may have some water in the Quema but they will be left without the pine trees on the road”.
As reported to EFE by sources from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, as of May 1, 2022, this dam had a volume of dammed water of 17 cubic hectometres, 85% of its capacity, while last Monday -May 1 – had dropped to 75%, with 15 cubic hectometres.
Irrigation and solar energy
A volume that allows for ordinary water discharges to supply irrigation and an Abengoa solar plant, although the request of this company to have extraordinary contributions of water made it go from the 8,100 cubic meters that it discharged daily to 18,000 .
The reservoir has a total volume of 20.37 cubic hectometres and as it is located in the bed of the Agrio and Crispinejo rivers, tributaries of the Guadiamar, it provides water by pouring into the latter river, which is the main water supply of Doñana from the Seville province.
Despite the drought situation, the current flow does not prevent it from making contributions both to irrigation in the area of Doñana and to the Abengoa Solar Platform in Sanlúcar la Mayor (Seville), the largest solar power plant in Europe. EFE