The anti-drought restrictions announced and decreed by the Government will inevitably affect agriculture, as one of the measures is to reduce agricultural irrigation by 40%. The sector will try to supply this decrease with reclaimed water from desalination or treatment plants, which could save the crops, stated Xavi Oliva, secretary of the Agricultural Cooperative of El Prat de Llobregat.
"The reclaimed water they send us goes through all the checks, and we also carry out checks too. This year, we'll manage to produce excellent products once again, but they reduce, reduce, and reduce the amount of water we get, so it's getting more and more complicated to produce."
German Dominguez, a farmer from the region, agreed with Oliva. "For the first time ever, I am very seriously thinking if I should, or I shouldn't plant tomatoes and zucchini. It's what I do every summer, but I'm not sure if I'll do it this year as I might have to depend too much on the rains and temperatures."
Desalinate or perish
Oliva and Dominguez consider that the Government must improve the infrastructure so that they receive as much water as possible, but they admit that the forecasts regarding the desalination and purification plants have been right: "We would be dead without them. In fact, the drought we faced 15 years ago was worse for us because we didn't have purified water that had the quality of the water we have now."
Source: elperiodico.com