The agricultural organizations Freshuelva, the Association of Citrus Growers of the Province of Huelva, Huelva Agro-Food Cooperatives, Asaja-Huelva, UPA, and the Association of Irrigation Communities of Huelva (Corehu) have expressed their concern "the 50% cut in irrigation water agreed by the Drought Commission of the Tinto-Odiel-Piedras and that will enter into force as of January 1 of next year due to the lack of rainfall and the non-realization of the necessary infrastructures that the agricultural sector has demanded for decades."
According to the agrarian organizations, "the situation wouldn't be so extreme had the commitments made in the different hydrological plans been kept and if the works declared of general interest of the State had been undertaken. The entry into force of this cut will ruin the agricultural sector, which will not be able to maintain its crops during the incipient campaigns, and it will also seriously affect the province of Huelva in general."
In this regard, the agricultural organizations agreed to resume at the end of January the protests they had postponed in November due to the persistence of the very serious situation of farmers in the province.
"After the postponement of the mobilizations scheduled for last November, the Junta de Andalucía began to execute the infrastructures demanded by the organizations. However, we can't consider this work to be a short-term solution to the problem because of the slowness in their execution. On the other hand, the works that must be carried out by the Government of Spain are at a standstill."
Thus, the organizations demand the central government "complement the actions carried out by the Junta de Andalucía, for example by authorizing the execution of the improvement of the intake of the Andévalo dam in which the regional administration is going to invest 26 million."
In addition, the organizations will request an emergency meeting with both the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, and the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Water, and Rural Development, Carmen Crespo, to inform them that there is an urgent need for measures that have an immediate result to be able to face the agricultural campaigns of the province.
