The first phase of the new pipeline for the irrigation system of the Huerta del Ebro Irrigation Community, in Fuentes de Ebro, Zaragoza, has been completed, reaching 1,350 meters of this infrastructure. During the last week of April, a test run of the installation was carried out, with satisfactory results, and it could be used by its users immediately.
The intervention is being carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of the Government of Aragon through the public company TRAGSA and the objective is to move the pre-existing irrigation network away from the defense dike. In its current position, there were affectations and cuts in the supply when there were breaks in the mote.
In addition, it has been decided to change from an open-air trench to a buried concrete pipe in its main network. Phase 2, with the remaining 1,000 meters, will begin in the last quarter of the year, after the conclusion of the irrigation campaign.
Osera- Fuentes Section
In addition to the work already started, further interventions are planned to reduce flood damage. In the first phase, the narrowing will be reduced and river space will be recovered by recessing two sections of the defense dike, moving them away from the channel in the meander of Aguilar and the mejana del Conde. This project has already passed the public information phase and will be executed by another of the partners, the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) with a budget of 2.9 million euros.
The expansion of the river area will be completed with the environmental restoration of the land recovered for the riverbed, through the planting of riparian vegetation, which will be carried out by the Government of Aragon.
In the second phase, currently at an advanced drafting stage, one of the most innovative interventions of the LIFE proposal is proposed: the creation of so-called buffer zones for lateral flows.
These buffer zones will compartmentalize agricultural estates in areas that will be pre-flooded in a controlled manner during flood episodes, generating water buffers that will minimize damage to farms and infrastructure when there is a generalized overflow, taking into account the processes already underway to modernize the irrigation of the entire orchard, by the Irrigation Community of the Huerta del Ebro, and the associated land consolidation action by the Government of Aragon.