Garden project in the Alpujarras, Andalucia, southern Spain

Summer 2006 into the winter of 2007

With the fairly moist spring the we enjoyed we assumed that water would not be so much of an issue for the summer of 2006. We were mistaken. Our local shepherd explained to us that it is not the rains of late spring that ensure the summer water, but the snows that fell the previous autumn. It is this snow that endures and melts gradually, allowing a continual supply of irrigation water to the acequias. So, whilst early summer went with a flourish, mid summer revealed a second year of drought, one that for our area was to be more serious than the year before due to the decline in the level of the residual water tables.

With our land we are entitled to 3.5 hours of irrigation water, for which we have to pay an annual fee. This irrigation water is available to us during the irrigation season, which starts sometime towards the end of April or early May and lasts into October, or as long as anyone seems to want to use it. During the official watering season we can take our 3.5 hours of water on two different days during an 8 day cycle; for us it is 2 hours on day 7 and 1.5 hours on day 8. In order to access this water we have to go up to the village of Pórtugos early on the allotted day and congregate at a point in the village where the main irrigation water enters the village. During the night time the irrigation water fills up the reservoir in the village and that water is then used by one section of the village during daylight hours. When it is light, however, the flow of water into the village can be diverted in order to be used by another section of the population for watering their land. We are amongst this second group. So, on the appropriate days we assemble with our watering colleagues at dawn by the village reservoir, waiting for it to become light. Whilst there we fairly divide up the day into our due time slots and everyone knows what the others are doing in respect of irrigation. To tell when it is light there is a test. The day has officially started when there is enough light to read by, and at this time the water can be diverted . Not a minute sooner or later. I did once try to point out that since we gather under a street lamp there is always enough light to read by but this was not taken seriously by the watering elders.

At the start of the season, when the flow of water is good, then the process of sharing out the time slots is no more complicated that this. Once the water is travelling in our direction we have to walk along the channels making sure there are no unwanted obstacles, and that all sluices are facing our way - the sluices are often no more than lumps of turf weighted down by stones. However, as the summer progresses the flow of water becomes less and less, and those unfortunate enough to find themselves towards the end of the watering stream discover that the flow of water is not sufficient to reach the land that desperately needs it. When this happens, fair play steps in and fellow waterers agree to manage the drought by diverting all the water - such as there is - in our direction but for a proportionally reduced amount of time. If the water channel is subdivided into two, then we would normally expect to have a half share of the water for your share of the time. In order to give enough water we will be allocated all the water - i.e.. a double share - but for half the time. This probably won't be enough water, but then anything is better than nothing. In the summer of 2006 this system of sharing a double part of water was instigated in early August, but even so, by the end of the month not even a double part of water was strong enough to wet the channels and reach anybody's land, so we could say that the acequia system for our part of Pórtugos, and many other places too, ran dry.

Crops that required late summer water simply died in the fields. We managed to save the plants in our garden by reusing household water, carried out in buckets. Looking around us we realised that the local farmers had been expecting this late summer drought and had planted accordingly. There was much more maize being cultivated around us, and where previously terraces had been planted with swathes of thirsty cherry tomatoes, this year there were non - except ours. The first week of September brought with it a violent summer storm and a huge deluge of rain over night. Two weeks later a similar event happened, both of which helped us to care for the garden until the rains of October arrived.

Even more we have come to appreciate the need to have a secure supply of irrigation water for our land, and there the need for an alberca or water reservoir. So the winter of 2006/07 we set to in earnest to get this all important commodity built. We had two volunteers working for us for some weeks, Damian from Croatia and Sonia from Germany, and we have been able to make good progress. There have been plenty of people to give us advice on how to construct it, and a visit from the local police to make sure we have the correct papers of permission to build it. Most of the advice we have been given revolves around making it as big as possible, which we have tried to heed whilst not being daunted by the ever increasing amount of work it gives us.

The garden has been maintained at the area it was during 2006. We plan to develop another terrace, as soon as the alberca is complete, that will be a terrace requiring a reasonable amount of irrigation. This means that the areas closest to the house will be the most lush in term of planting types. Beyond that we will develop two more terraces, one with natural species from the mountains of southern Spain, and another with plants that are generally drought tolerant. This will result in a garden with at least four very different zones to it, each having its own merit and possibly its own time of the year when it can be viewed in its greatest glory.

At the time of writing this, however, there appears to be another threat on the horizon. There are plans to further divert the precious water of the Rio Trevelez from a point high up in its course and transfer this water to a new reservoir on the mountains that face us, the Contraviesa. It is claimed that this water is need by the people who live in this region, an area that is naturally and habitually very dry. Campaigners suspect that these claims are erroneous and that the water will be used to supply massive developments along the Costa Tropical. Already there are plans for an unfeasibly large development centred on a golf course attached to the small and remote mountain village of Rubite. Protests are underway to stop this removal of essential water. From our experience of last summer we know that the Alpujarras has barely enough water to supply its own centuries old traditions and way of life and we sincerely hope that any development will be one based on sustainability..

Acequia providing irrigation water for Pórtugos

Link to find out what we did in the spring and summer of 2007

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