The extreme drought in Malaga and the DeepDrop® irrigation system make headlines on German television.

German public broadcaster ZDF reports on the extreme drought in the region
and its social, economic and environmental impacts. In turn, it presents how
some initiatives seek to minimize these impacts. One of them is the
DeepDrop® subsurface and localized irrigation. In this post we gather the key ideas of
of the report “Extremdürre in Spanien“.

This summer, and this is not a new phenomenon, but a trend that has been going on for years, the
The water level of the Viñuela reservoir has dropped to very low levels. As
According to the German television documentary, the reservoir was in the middle of its
August at 12% of its capacity, although the newspaper of Malaga, on August 17, headlines
an article as follows: La Viñuela reservoir reaches its minimum figures.
is at 11% of its historical capacity.

This situation has even led to the uprooting of old trees by farmers.
to ensure the irrigation of young trees, to have a company from the sector
that is no longer able to offer one of its services due to drought or because of the
young people are concerned about their future because their families will no longer be able to irrigate their
fields.

On the other hand, Mr. Rafael Yus, coordinator of GENA-Ecologistas en
Acción, who denounces that this situation is a consequence of poor management of the
water. It is not a question of drought, as it has always existed.

Thus, necessity leads to the search for new solutions to better manage water in
the agricultural fields of the Axarquia region, where the monoculture of avocado trees
is widespread. And it is at this point that the irrigation system is discussed.
DeepDrop® subway, already implemented in some farms.

One of the farmers who has implemented it, as well as Ernesto Rico, director of the
DeepDrop® system explain the advantages of this simple device:

• Water irrigation goes directly to the roots which strengthens the trees.
• Water losses due to evaporation are avoided since the water goes directly into the plant.
  to the subsoil.
• While other subway irrigation systems are available, the DeepDrop® system,
  allows to easily control from the surface that the water is reaching
  correctly in the subsoil.

Ernesto Rico also explains that they have gone from 20 customers in the spring to more than 300.
in mid-August, which is evidence of the need for the agricultural sector, the
gardening and private individuals to find new water-saving methods to make the most of the water available.
drought.