Las aguas de la provincia de Huelvarecursos, usos agrícolas y oportunidades

Abstract

From being Huelva (Andalusia, Spain) a province with hardly any irrigation in the past, it has experienced in only four decades a wide expansion of irrigation, cause and consequence of its avant-garde agriculture, transforming the landscape and landscape of its villages, especially in its coastal strip and in the region of Andévalo. This thriving agriculture has imprinted a socio-economic dynamism in the producing villages, previously unknown, which in turn activates other economic sectors and other neighboring territories. This agricultural initiative soon found in the quantity and quality of water a constant challenge, which has involved not only a greater associative commitment of farmers but also the full involvement of public administrations. Since then, hydraulic works have marked the center and south of the province of Huelva in an attempt to irrigate the fields with surface water, reducing the catchments of the limited aquifers. These new irrigations have been achieved on the western coast and in the area of Moguer-Palos de la Frontera, but not yet in the northern Corona of Doñana, whose crops continue to be supplied from an aquifer in conflict with the environmental sustainability of the natural area. Progress has indeed been made in water supply, although perhaps not with the required speed and capacity. Despite this, the irrigation communities, also without a long history in the province, have organized themselves to ensure the irrigation of their fields, and today they are also powerful organizations with social weight and negotiating capacity vis-à-vis different administrations. New scenarios have also made it necessary to modify the regulatory framework, with a horizon of difficult balances between the right to use the resources and the preservation of Huelva’s invaluable natural heritage. In this sense, one of the main challenges is undoubtedly to ensure the sustainability of the agricultural use of water with the urban, industrial and, of course, environmental ones, in the most integrated way possible. The expansion of irrigation in areas such as the Condado and the conversion of irrigation in the northern Corona of Doñana will require special socio-ecosystemic care. The objective would be to achieve the so-called Huelva System, that is, the interconnection of the current Andévalo-Chanza-Piedras system with an incipient Odiel system and with the Condado and Doñana. This is the wish of the user organizations and is partly reflected in the projections of the hydrological plans. This research describes a geography of the waters of the province of Huelva, but paying special attention to conflicts, opportunities and hydrological planning. Given that irrigated agriculture is the main water demander and consumer, together with its capacity to transform landscapes and landscapes, this will occupy a large part of its pages.