The Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has published on its website the provisional resolution of the first call for the PERTE for the digitalization of the water cycle, granting a total amount of 74.1 million euros for the digitalization of water user communities for irrigation, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).
A total of 125 projects have been provisionally selected in a competitive concurrence regime, with grants ranging from 60,915 euros to 3.06 million euros per project. The beneficiaries include irrigation communities, groundwater user communities, general communities, central boards, and an association of user communities, totaling 214 entities, of which 113 have applied individually and 101 have grouped into 12 other applications.
The projects are distributed in the scope of 13 autonomous communities and 12 hydrographic basins. The initiatives included in the territory of the Duero Hydrographic Confederation – 34 projects, 37 entities – represent the majority of the aid with 22%, followed by the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation – 25 projects, 57 entities – with 21% and the Júcar – 15 projects, 59 entities – with 20%.
The grants are distributed among the 7 digital solutions included in the Irrigation Digitalization Solutions Catalog (TED Order 918/2023). Each entity has included an average of 4 digital solutions in their proposal, with digital solution G – Support for remote control, monitoring, fertigation, and improvement of energy efficiency – aggregating the majority of the aid with 58% (97% of entities have requested this solution); followed by solution E – Monitoring the quality and quantity of water in the returns of irrigation to surface water – with over 9% of the aid (27% of the entities); and solution C2 – Technological improvements and digitalization of systems for controlling the volume of water actually used in the plot – with 9% (46% of the entities).
With these grants, 70% of the beneficiaries will fund an application for electronic processing and a web portal – solution A – and 70% will develop or improve a digital application based on geographic information systems (GIS) – solution B. Additionally, 49% will digitalize their DPH intakes – solution C1 –; 57% will monitor water content in the soil to optimize irrigation – solution D – and 22% will monitor leachates to groundwater – solution F –.
The funded actions respond to cutting-edge and strategic initiatives that will allow progress in modernizing towards a smarter, more precise and sustainable agriculture that optimizes production processes, minimizing the impacts of agriculture on the water environment and the hydrological cycle in general, contributing to achieving the objectives of the digitalization PERTE of the water cycle.
Overall, with this provisional resolution, the digitalization PERTE of the water cycle has already mobilized nearly 925 million euros, distributed among urban cycle operators – 500 million –, irrigation users – 74 million –, Autonomous Communities – 200 million – and the Hydrographic Confederations – 150 million –.
In the coming weeks, the second call for the use of water in irrigation – 100 million – will be published, in which more flexibility will be granted to projects, so it is expected that participation will increase.
Source: MiMub in Spanish
