Starting on Monday, the irrigation of citrus groves will begin with water from the Castello dam assigned in recent days by the Basin Authority of the Sicilian Region. In the Ribera area and in the other five municipalities, everything is ready for the opening of the inlets that will allow for the withdrawal of a total of approximately 1.6 million cubic meters distributed – farmers hope – in two irrigations between July and August. The Agrigento 3 land reclamation consortium has mobilized resources and men to repair the water supply and the canalization in a couple of sections affected by leaks. It has filled the branch tanks that will bring water to 2,200 hectares of orange groves and approximately 300 hectares of pear groves.
The water quota assigned to the companies will be 400 cubic meters per hectare of orchard, just enough to try to save the life of the plants hit by the heavy heat of the past few days. Production seems compromised. The meters will measure the water distributed. It must be said, however, that some farmers, whose land overlooks the bed of the Verdura river, have managed to pump, with their own means, a little water that they have transferred to their hillside lakes.
Water distribution in the land is the most difficult in the last twenty years because the absence of rain has not allowed the reservoirs in the area serving the Verdura, Magazzolo and Platani valleys to be filled. The quota of water assigned was 2 million cubic metres, less the 400 thousand allocated to the peach orchards in the Bivona and Lucca Sicula area. With the remaining 1.6 million, growers hope to be able to achieve two partial irrigations. Much will depend on the summer heat and above all on the water absorption of the land that has been arid for a year and the thirsty citrus groves. It seems certain that it shouldn’t rain until September.
