The quality of water supplied to the lower area of the Segarra-Garrigues Canal has sparked significant controversy among farmers. They explain that the water arrives so dirty that it forces them to clean their irrigation devices multiple times a day, severely impacting their work and crops.
The affected farmers, belonging to sector 12 of the canal which includes lands in Aspa, Alfés, El Cogul, and Alcanó, lament having to manually clean filters up to three times daily. "We pay for a luxury service and receive poor quality water," they state, demanding an urgent solution for clean water.
Sources from Aigües del Segarra-Garrigues (ASG), the canal's managing entity, have acknowledged turbidity issues, although they have limited them to an 80-hectare area in Aspa and assure that the situation is now resolved. According to ASG, the turbidity originated from the Segre river, where intense autumn and winter rains, followed by thawing, have caused sediment episodes.
The situation has caused discontent among farmers, who see their drip irrigation hoses becoming unusable due to soil accumulation. Faced with this problem, they are considering undertaking protest actions to demand an improvement in the quality of irrigation water.
