The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) has declared this Tuesday the exceptional situation due to extraordinary drought in its entire demarcation, which covers the Valencian Community, as well as part of the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete and Teruel, due to the continued absence of rainfall and will study possible agricultural restrictions starting in May.
According to a statement from the CHJ, the data collected by the Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) indicate that the current hydrological year 2023-2024 is being the driest of the last 33 years, with 115 mm of average precipitation accumulated by the 216 of the historical series.
This lack of rain has also translated into a reduction in the contributions to the rivers, a decrease in underground resources and a reduction in the storage capacity in the reservoirs which, despite the fact that at a global level they are above the average of the last 10, 20 and 30 years, has caused some systems (those of Palancia-Los Valles, Cenia-Maestrazgo and Marina Alta) to be in an emergency scenario due to water scarcity.
“The Palancia-Los Valles system has been in this scenario since December, but we have considered that now, when we have several systems in emergency and others in pre-alert, it was the right time to make this decision,” explained Arancha Fidalgo, the head of the Office of Hydrological Planning (OPH).
Fidalgo has pointed out that the declaration serves to anticipate the possible problems that may arise in systems such as Mijares-Plana de Castellón, Serpis, Marina Baja and Vinalopó-Alacantí during the next irrigation campaign, which is about to begin.
“These systems are on pre-alert due to water scarcity and, if there is no rainfall, they will predictably go into alert during the irrigation campaign,” she added.
The declaration of the exceptional situation due to extraordinary drought allows the confederation to request the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge for its inclusion in the Royal Decree-Law under article 58 of the consolidated text of the Water Law, with the objective of be able to adopt extraordinary measures in relation to the use of the public hydraulic domain.
These are actions aimed at alleviating the drought situation, such as the exemption from the regulation fee and the water use fee for users who suffer restrictions, the execution of urgent infrastructure, as well as administrative measures to modify the conditions of use of the public hydraulic domain: provisions, priority criteria, water sources, conditions of discharge authorizations or adaptation of hydroelectric uses.
Agricultural, not urban, restrictions
Consumption restrictions are not applied automatically with this declaration, but based on the analysis of the particularities of each drought episode and each exploitation system.
The possible agricultural restrictions for this irrigation campaign will be decided in the next sessions of the different sections of the Discharge Commission, which will be convened, if appropriate, for the month of May.
In some territorial units such as Palancia-Los Valles and Cenia-Maestrazgo, different monitoring, control and management measures have already been implemented, included in the Special Drought Plan of the Júcar Demarcation, to address the drought situation. water scarcity.
Regarding urban supply, the confederation wants to emphasize that, in general, "no problems are foreseen, since its guarantee is a priority."
Fidalgo has insisted on the importance of municipalities having an emergency plan against drought and implementing the measures included in it.
For those who do not have the document, "it would be interesting for them to keep track of their resource source that allows them to identify and anticipate possible problems."
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