The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation will publish the first draft of the new Ebro Hydrological Plan in October, after five months of work and with an underlying warning about the basin. The organization faces the revision of the document while climate change points to a 16% reduction in water resources in 25 years.
The tension of the process lies in this double pressure. Available water may fall at the same time that crop needs will grow between 10.5% and 13.2% in two decades, a gap that conditions the allocation of resources, irrigation, and environmental objectives in areas like Lleida.
The CHE anticipates less water and more irrigation demand
The Planning Office includes this in a 150-page document, in which it warns that water balances, resource allocation and reservation, environmental objectives, and irrigation needs will require a very high effort during the drafting of the new plan.
This analysis also includes the deterioration of several watercourses and underground masses due to excess nitrogen. Affected rivers include the Sió, Corb, Ondara, Conques, and Abella, along with the aquifers of Urgell, Raimat, Mig Segre, Baix Segre, and Alt Urgell.
Part of this debate directly affects the regions of Ponent, where pressure on irrigated land and water quality problems coincide. The revision of the plan must accommodate both fronts in the same proposal.
The public consultation closed with 140 objections to the initial scheme
After the closure of the public consultation on the Scheme of Important Issues, the CHE received 140 objections. The submissions focused on the quantity of available resources, water quality, and the management of irrigation and infrastructure.
Sources from the Confederation valued this participation phase as useful for correcting and expanding the focus of the documents.
"It is a very enriching phase, which allows us to broaden the vision and thereby improve the documents" - Sources from the CHE, Ebro Hydrographic Confederation
The volume of contributions is below that recorded in the previous process, although that figure requires a nuanced reading. The Scheme of Important Issues of the previous plan received 384 objections, but 273 of them were duplicates.
The first draft of the new Ebro Hydrological Plan will be published in October, after the consultation on the Scheme of Important Issues closed with 140 objections.