EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP ON GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT

Last week, on October 18, 19 and 20, a “Workshop for the exchange of experience on groundwater management” took place in Valencia, Albacete and Requena-Utiel, bringing together members from the four case studies of the eGROUNDWATER project.

The objective of the workshops was to bring together researchers, users and managers of groundwater from the project’s scope of action (north Africa and southern Europe) to exchange experiences and reflections.

Day 1: Field trip in Albacete

The conference began with a field trip to Albacete, where Pedro Olivas, technical adviser for the Central Irrigation Board of La Mancha Oriental, explained the history of the Board, its current operations and how they have managed to become a management example of sustainable and collective use of groundwater. In addition, during the field visit, he also showed us the Irrigation Community of Príncipe de España (Nuevas Aguas) and the Tajo-Segura water transfer infrastructure used by farmers to take surface water as a substitute for underground resources.

Jornada 2: Workshop in Requena

On the second day, the workshop was held in Requena. The members of eGROUNDWATER presented the project’s four case studies and responded to questions and comments from water users and managers from Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Spain. In the afternoon, a field visit was made for the Requena-Utiel case study, visiting the San Benedetto water bottling plant and the Campo Arcís Irrigation Community ponds.

Jornada 3: Workshop in Requena part 2

On the third day, case studies from Tunisia and France were presented, followed by a participatory workshop in which groundwater users and managers shared their main concerns and interests regarding the knowledge of the underground resource and the solutions for improving its collective management.