there is concern about water for crops in the region / dolores ripoll
As a result of the drought, the work of the producers of vegetables, flowers and fruits is complicated, since the majority of the families that cultivate the land in the Region use the greenhouse system, which is fed by the irrigation of perforations. The problem is that due to the lack of rain, the groundwater levels dropped significantly and more power is required to obtain the water that keeps the crops alive.
“The level of the water table dropped a lot; It doesn’t affect us as much as those who work in the open fields, because our production is irrigated, but we have to add pipes to the perforations to go down at least ten meters,” said flower grower Silvio Pérez, with production in Abasto.
The producer assured that this “extra” work for the search for water would not result in an increase in the retail price. Moreover, he considered that “today the values are very low.”
The La Niña climatic phenomenon greatly reduced the historical rainfall average and occurs more severely this season, much more extended in days than in previous opportunities.
It is the agro-livestock sector that receives the worst impact of a drought that is registered in more than 50 percent of the Argentine territory, with prevalence in the East of the country and from which this city does not escape.
Héctor Pestrín, Mercado Región stall keeper, pointed out his concern in this regard. “There is a lack of water and although we do not have a concrete reality of the damage, we know that there is going to be a shortage of important merchandise in the short term and that is that the costs of the primary areas are going to have a strong increase due to the low production,” he said.
According to Pestrín’s calculations, the producer will lose. “If he has invested a certain amount of capital, when it is time to harvest, he will have half of what he expected,” he added.
Horacio Beláustegui, head of the Biosphere Foundation, an NGO that seeks to raise awareness among the population to carry out environmentally friendly practices, explained how groundwater is recharged with water. “They are nourished by the rains, but not with the last rain, but with the accumulation of rains in recent years. The Río de La Plata estuary is a huge source of water and should be used both for local production and to feed the drinking water network,” said the specialist in ecology and professor at the National University of Luján.
Due to climate change, experts argue that the water crisis is going to worsen. “With increasingly higher temperatures -said Beláustegui-, the drought is going to grow”.
perforations
The specialist from the Biosphere Foundation recalled that “if there is no water, there is no photosynthesis, and then there is no production of the food that is generated in the area.”
The Foundation has studied the different measures that could be adopted to use the resources of the Río de La Plata, but, Beláustegui pointed out, the way in which irrigation perforations are carried out in the local green belt should also be reviewed.
Beláustegui pointed out as a “problem” the density of the irrigation wells. “It’s very high,” he said. And with such high temperatures, with such intense heat and without precipitation, the water tables become depressed”.
In his opinion, the solution in this regard would be “to have few good perforations, which would guarantee the supply of water, and not like now when there are many perforations in a few hectares and without the appropriate conditions.”
This issue of the dryness of the groundwater due to the use of intensive irrigation has been analyzed since last year at the Water Observatory of the Deliberative Council of La Plata.
