The Minister of the Environment Cristina Narbona attended yesterday in the Granada municipality of Baza the constitution of the Board of Works of the Plan of the Huéscar-Baza Region, the first to take place at the national level, and which aims to seek alternatives for the irrigation of the region and allow the participation of those interested in the works plan.

The creation of the Board of Works of the Plan of the Huéscar-Baza Region was approved at the Governing Board held by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation on December 2, 2005, and is regulated in article 34 of the Consolidated Text of the Water Law and in the Regulation of the Public Administration of Water of Hydrological Planning.

This Works Board is made up of representatives of the central, regional and local administrations and users of the different irrigation communities of the region, within the parameters of consensus that presides over each of the principles of the A.G.U.A. Program.

The purpose of the meeting was to present the Works Plan and its different alternatives, as well as to give participation to the interested parties from the beginning in the reasonable solutions to irrigate the Huéscar-Baza region with water from the Portillo and San Clemente reservoirs. Likewise, it is intended to achieve joint management with the groundwater of the area, optimizing the management of hydraulic resources, contemplating the supply to the surrounding municipalities and the social use of the reservoirs. The ministry will invest 55 million euros in the modernization of irrigation in the province of Granada, highlighting the Baza-Huéscar region, where the amount of the planned actions reaches 45 million euros. The aim is to bring water from the Negratín reservoir to guarantee the irrigation of 23,000 hectares.