Eighteen years is a long wait for somebody to open the tap, which is the case of the Costa farmers and the Embalse de Rules. Patience has its limits, though.

Recently, there have been a handful of protests, mainly at the dam itself but this time the farmers, backed by the agricultural workers union, COAG,  and other organisatons, decided to take their protests to the very heart of the problem – Madrid!

The event, which took place on the 14th in front of the Ministry, had wide backing, including: Asociación de Empresarios de la Costa Tropical (AECOST), COAG, Asociación de Chiringuitos, Comunidad General de Regantes, la Cámara de Comercio, ECOHAL and the Junta Central de Usuarios de los Ríos Verde, Seco y Jate.

They set off at night along the A-44 with the aim of being at 10.30h in front of the relevant Ministry. After that they went to the House of Parliament (Congreso) to speak with MPs for Granada belonging to the major parties: PP, Vox, PSOE and Podemos, as well as a representative of Ciudadanos, who have no Granada parliamentary seat in the national parliament.

The 40 farmers from Almuñécar belonging to the Río Verde-Seco-Jate Irrigation Community, travelled by bus to cover the 501 kilometres, armed with determination and cheese rolls.

Yes, the Government has promised to use the European Regeneration Funds for the task, which would mean that the work would have to be concluded by a certain date (An EU stipulation concerning fund use) which would be 2027.

So what does the distribution network entail? There would be 15 kilometres of pipe bringing the water from the reservoir to Coto 200 in Molvízar, which would cost over 50m euros.

Will the trip to Madrid make any difference? Many of you will remember when the then Mayor of Almuñécar, Juan Carlos Benavides Yaguas, took 40 busloads of Almuñequeros to Sevilla to pressure the Junta for the seabed pipeline from Maro (Río de la Miel). It worked.

(News: Almuñécar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)