The platform of residents of Alpicat urbanizations has taken the modernization of the Aragón and Catalunya Canal irrigation to court to demand that the project include pressurized flow pipes in the residential areas of the municipality.
The clash pits two interests against each other over the same work. While the residents maintain that such a network would also serve nearby agricultural plots and align with water efficiency objectives, the irrigation community argues that incorporating the urbanizations would jeopardize a European subsidy of 4 million euros intended for 1,250 hectares of cultivation.
The irrigation community links the work to 1,250 hectares and 4 million in European aid
The board of the irrigation community rejects the residents' request because it believes that allocating part of these funds to pipes for urbanizations could compromise the Next Generation aid granted for the modernization of agricultural land. The entity groups together more than 400 farmers from Alpicat and Lleida.
Their argument is that this aid has an agricultural purpose and that applying it to conduits for areas with chalets would be equivalent to diverting it for uses such as garden irrigation or filling swimming pools. This is the point on which they focus their opposition to the administrative litigation filed by the platform.
The residents propose one hydrant per urbanization and paying for the internal network
Faced with this rejection, the residents of the urbanizations argue that the installation of pressurized pipes would not be limited to domestic supply. Their thesis is that it would also improve service in agricultural properties near the homes and, therefore, can be integrated into the modernization project.
Currently, the urbanizations, with about 250 chalets, receive water from both the canal and the municipal network. What they are now demanding is a pressurized infrastructure that would allow them to access public maintenance grants.
Furthermore, the residents propose an intermediate solution. They propose installing a single hydrant per urbanization and covering the cost of the internal distribution network with their own resources to distribute water among houses and plots.
The conflict began with a 2013 resolution and changed in September
The entire conflict began last year, when the irrigation community tried to exclude the urbanizations from the supply upon detecting a resolution from the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation issued in 2013 that so required.
Months later, the situation changed. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation approved a new resolution in September that recognizes the residents with a water allocation for supply without subtracting it from the volume destined for irrigation and reincorporates them as members of the community.
That September resolution maintains for the residents a water allocation for supply without reducing the one assigned to irrigation and returns the developments to their status as members of the irrigation community.