The dry weather being experienced in Murcia this winter highlights the importance of the infrastructures which were built to ensure water supplies for the Region, and although the reservoirs of the Segura basin are relatively full at the moment anyone who has lived here for more than a few years will remember the inconvenience of water shortages in the past. When the temperature tops 40ºC and the shower doesn’t work, tempers begin to fray!

 

The suffering in times of drought is not limited to personal discomfort, though: a guaranteed water supply is also crucial to the Region’s economy, relying as it does on agriculture. A lack of rainfall can therefore be a problem on all fronts, and in the latter part of the twentieth century arguably the most important step forward for Murcia was the construction of the Tajo-Segura “Trasvase”, or water supply canal, which officially celebrates its 35^th birthday on 31^st March.

 

Over recent years the demand for water in the south-east has risen significantly as the population has increased, and despite the search for alternative water supplies it has to be said that the proliferation of golf courses has also played its part. Much of this development in Murcia would have been impossible without the Trasvase, which made irrigation available to vast new areas of the Region and also guaranteed a regular supply of water to the rising population.

 

It was under the presidency of Adolfo Suárez, who died just over a week ago, that the Trasvase was officially inaugurated on 31^st March 1979, without any fuss or ceremony. The only witnesses to the moment the tap was turned on were a few engineers involved in the project, as is shown by the black and white photograph accompanying this article.

 

José Manuel Claver, the president of the central irrigators’ union SCRATS, used the occasion of the Trasvase’s 35th anniversary to highlight the importance of the infrastructure, reiterating that it has been of paramount importance to the economic development not only of the south-east of Spain, but also to the whole country. Since the Trasvase was inaugurated the population of the province of Alicante has more than doubled, and in Murcia there are now 80% more inhabitants than in the early 1970s.

 

In addition, Spain’s national GDP is boosted to the tune of over 2,000 million euros by the infrastructure, and the 11,467-cubic-hectometre capacity also provides employment directly to 103,461 people.

 

In the light of all this, Sr Claver remarked, it is necessary to ensure that it is adequately maintained and improved. 

 

The canal was first devised during the Second Republic (1931-39, prior to Franco’s dictatorship) by the engineer Manuel Lorenzo Pardo, to transport water from the high plains of La Mancha to the south-east, where the climate is more favourable for agriculture but there is less natural water supply. However it was not until 1966 that construction actually began, and the 292-kilometre canal was completed thirteen years later, complemented by an additional 80km of irrigation channels.

 

It now provides practically all of the urban water supply in the provinces of Alicante and Almería as well as the Region of Murcia, serving 2.5 million people all year round and an additional 500,000 when the population is boosted by tourists in the summer months.