The Botorrita “Contrebia Belaisca” awards of the Ebro Water Partnerships were presented in the afternoon of March 7 at SMAGUA, the technological showcase for the water and environmental industry, organized by Feria de Zaragoza. the Ebro Water Partnership is an innovation laboratory on the use of water in the Ebro in Aragon. The Partnership has updated the vision of water to design an outline of how water management should evolve, with a socially inclusive technical perspective and with the ambition of creating an attractive model, in which the citizens of Ebro-Aragón want to settle and with the participation of civil society. The three institutions that make up the RAMA group have participated in the Partnership since its inception. The Partnership has received funding from the EAFRD of the European Union and from the Government of Aragon through two Operational Groups of the Rural Development Program.
The first edition of the Botorrita “Contrebia Belaisca” awards has had as its objective the visibility and enhancement of good practices and success stories that are developed in the different types of irrigation present in the Aragonese geography. In this way, through cooperation and collective intelligence, the aim has been to collect, select and promote those practices that, developed by researchers, technicians, farmers and/or administration, in their specific areas or in combination, allow a good use of agricultural water.
At this time you will be wondering about “Contrebia Belaisca“. It is a Celtiberian town located near the current city of Botorrita, where four bronze plaques with legal texts have been found, three of them in paleo-Hispanic script (Celtiberian language) and another in Latin script. Bronze II or “tabula contrebiensis”, presents a dispute over water between the inhabitants of Salduie (Zaragoza) and those of Alaún (Alagón). This bronze embodies the millennial concern of the inhabitants of the Ebro valley for water management. A reproduction of the Bronze II is the trophy that is delivered with the award.
At the event, Marian Lorenzo, CITA researcher, presented the geodatabase and the query viewer for irrigation in Aragon, developed by the Partnership, which puts figures and cartographic representation of the main features of Aragonese irrigation.
The awards ceremony was conducted by Elisa Plumed (APAE President). The event was participated by José Luis Castellano, Technichal Secretary General of the Agriculture, Animal Farming and the Environment Department of the Government of Aragón, Rogelio Cuairán, Director General of “Feria Zaragoza”, the Presidents of FEREBRO (César Trillo), The Canal de Aragón y Cataluña (José Luis Pérez), The Canal de Bardenas (José María Vinué) and Riegos del Alto Aragón (José María Pradas), the CITA Research Director (Alberto Bernués), and a numerous representation of water users associations, irrigation companies, researchers and the River Basin Organization (Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro).
Both the two second prizes and the prize were awarded to projects developed by researchers from the RAMA group at CITA, in collaboration with other institutions related to irrigated agriculture.
The second runner-up was awarded to the project “LIFE ARIMEDA – Ammonia emission reduction in Mediterranean agriculture with innovative slurry fertigation techniques”. Dolores Quílez and Arturo Daudén (CITA-Aragón), Azucena Crespo (ADS2 Ejea), Carlos Pérez Ortiz (CHE) and Luís Mené (CG Bardenas).
The first prize went to the project “Impact of the modernization of the irrigation system in the Community of Irrigators of Almudévar”. Mª Teresa Jiménez and Daniel Isidoro (CITA-Aragón) and Javier Gómez (CR de Almudévar).
Finally, the Botorrita award-winning project was for the project “Innovative tools based on remote sensing and geographic information systems to improve decision-making on water management in irrigation communities.” Mª A. Casterad and R. Salvador (CITA-Aragón), Representative (CAyC) and Representative (RAA).
In the same act, the bases of the 2nd Contest for the Good Use of Water in Agriculture 2023 were presented.
A photo gallery of the event is presented next:
