Expensive water

The Supreme Court has upheld a fine of €601,012 imposed on a community of irrigators in Aznalcázar, Sevilla, for a ‘serious’ offence. The ruling also includes the payment of €1,123,416 for the use of five million cubic hectares of collected water.

The original fine was imposed by the Council of Ministers in 2004. The farmers were accused of using water from groundwater wells without the permission of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir (Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir). The water was used to irrigate (by flooding) 338 hectares of rice fields, 86 hectares of cotton (drip feed) and 20 hectares of beet (spraying).

The farmers argued that they did not increase the flow of water beyond the authorised level, but rather ‘optimised’ the consumption by, for example, using the rice water to irrigate the cotton crops.

The Supreme Court, however, responded by stating that not only did the farmers use water from 7 wells for which permission had been denied and they therefore had no permit, they were also irrigating in areas where irrigation was not authorised.

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