The president of the Vale Madeiro Irrigation Perimeter Beneficiaries Association, Emanuel Batista, said Monday that the irrigation dam in the Bragança district in a more critical situation it is losing little water what’s wrong with it.
The reservoir that irrigates the orchards and fodder for the animals of about 200 beneficiaries of Mirandela reached the limit of reserves at the beginning of summer and was included by the Government in a national list with limitations for the irrigation campaign.
The irrigation campaign has already finished and the hydro-agricultural use It has been closed for a month, but it is losing water and with a storage level of around nine percent of its capacity.
“The dam loses a lot of water, we closed it (irrigation) about a month ago and it keeps going down,” the president of the beneficiary association told Lusa.
According to Emanuel Batista, the problem is due to “a leak in the walland the association is “making a survey” of the situation to send a letter to the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the North.
The director stated that “the situation is not new” and that “three or four years ago” that they are warning him, but that “nobody cared because there was never a lack of water”.
Now with the drought, the problem has become evident and the loss of water is proof to the president of the association that “it is not the irrigators who spend a lot????????
“In addition to the drought, this problem contributed a lot to keeping the dam at these levels,” he stressed.
Contacted by Lusa, the regional director of Agriculture and Fisheries of the North, Carla Alves, said that she was unaware of the problem in question and that what was reported to this body was “a failure in an irrigation box”, which is being resolved between insurer and irrigation association.
The regional director assured availability of services to help solve the problem, but stressed that the irrigators association has not yet approached her”no indication at this level????????
Carla Alves recalled that “the regional management carries out works very regularly and whenever necessary to recover the structures of these irrigation systems”, and has confirmed that five works are being carried out in the northern area to improve the conditions of these uses. .
“Obviously, the management is from the irrigation association and they have to give us a note of the problems they are having,” he said.
The Vale Madeiro dam has around 200 beneficiaries, “90%” of whom cultivate family, social and subsistence gardens in the parishes of Carvalhais and Mirandela, for domestic consumption, but also to sell in the local market.
The rest are farmers, specifically small ruminants, and “half a dozen farms,” he explained.
Source: Observadora
