The irrigation campaign, which started earlier this year due to the drought, has now ended, with water reserves in the dams “down” and farmers waiting for a rainy winter to reverse the situation.

The rain that has marked the month of October “solved the water needs of crops, but in the irrigation dams “nothing has changed”, according to Fernando Brás, president of the Irrigation Association, told Lusa.

In this area of ​​the Bragança district “it rained very little”, according to the official who pointed out that the low reserves should be confirmed in the update of the official report on irrigation reservoirs.

The last update was published on October 14th, even before it started to rain in this region.

The president of the Association of Irrigators told Lusa that this year's irrigation campaign ended in Vale da Vilariça with water reserves being “very low”.

More rain needed

Fernando Brás now hopes that “the winter will have a little more rain” and that they will be able to “replenish the water reserves”, otherwise he anticipates that next year will be “very, very bad”.

The irrigation association will take advantage of the winter months, when it is not necessary to use irrigation, to carry out maintenance work on the main ducts.

The president hopes that, at the same time, it will be possible to carry out other interventions “for more efficient management throughout the irrigation perimeter” and for which he obtained a “favourable opinion” for an application of three million euros” of community funds.

The works planned for the coming months will prevent some producers in the valley with greenhouses from having access to irrigation.