The “Blancos” farmers of Bulnes and San Ignacio, who have been waiting for more than two decades to receive water from the Laja-Diguillín system, reacted with surprise and disappointment when they discovered, last January, that the key project to access irrigation for their properties, called Stage 3, which was to be executed by the Directorate of Hydraulic Works (DOH) of the MOP, was “erased” by the authority in 2019, that is, it is estimated that almost five valuable years were lost to provide a definitive solution to more than 8 thousand hectares of dryland, belonging to 1,860 small farmers.
César Valenzuela, president of the Blancos de Bulnes, stated that “the damage is terrible; “If Stage 3 had followed its normal course, we would be watering today.”
The leader recalled that, following consulting the Ministry of Social Development regarding the status of the “Áreas Blancas” irrigation project of the Laja-Diguillín system, they received in response official letter No. 69, dated January 10, 2024, issued by the Undersecretariat of Social Evaluation, a document that revealed that, following reviewing the Integrated Project Bank (BIP), it was found that there are two initiatives in the National Investment System (SNI) associated with the Laja-Diguillín system, one of them called “Construction Laja Distribution System -Diguillín (Stage 3)”, which was approved in 2012 by SNI to develop the design, which was tendered and contracted by the DOH between 2014 and 2018, and contemplated the completion of engineering design studies for various works distribution of the White and Additional Areas; among them, the improvement of the existing canal network to ensure irrigation on the properties, which is the heart of the project, as well as new works, such as the Feeder Canal 2 and protection works, among others.
According to the official letter, once the design stage was completed, the DOH did not submit this initiative to the execution stage to continue its life cycle, but rather, on October 4, 2019, it submitted a new project called “Construction Canal Alimentador 2”, once more in the design stage and whose processing is still pending due to lack of new information. “The problem is that Alimentado 2, at this point, no longer benefits the Whites and was put in place of the Stage 3 project, which already had its studies completed years ago and was ready to be executed,” said Valenzuela.
“I hope that, as a result of this, the authorities become aware and there is once once more the political will to resume the committed Stage 3, prioritizing the true social spirit of the project and that the works to adapt canals to irrigate the Whites will be resumed, a an initiative that has achieved transversal support from the table formed by the Regional Government, as well as from the parliamentarians of the area, the municipalities, the canal workers and the small farmers,” said the helmsman of the Blancos de Bulnes.
Long wait
Francisco Saldías, water judge of the Diguillín River Surveillance Board, who has acted as coordinator of the Blancos, explained that “the white surface is pieces of agricultural real estate from San Ignacio and Bulnes, which do not have water from the Diguillín River, Therefore, the canal network does not reach these properties.” In that sense, he declared that, “the board of directors of the Diguillín River Surveillance Board aims for the Laja-Diguillín canal to irrigate all the hectares that were initially committed, that is, the 44,630 hectares, however, there are targets that do not irrigate with water from the Diguillín River, but that do have the technical feasibility to incorporate their current dry land surfaces into irrigation”
He explained that there are 9,763 hectares in total “that might be incorporated into irrigation thanks to the existing network of canals of the Diguillín River.” However, of that area, 1,685 hectares have been incorporated to irrigation to date, “thanks to the delivery of water from the DOH with use and exploitation agreements with farmers, since 2014, who have made agreements with the representatives of canals and have carried out the expansion and distribution works with farmers’ resources, such as splitting frames, to be able to join the canal,” indicated the leader.
“In this way,” Saldías continued, “there are still 8,077 hectares to be incorporated, which do not have irrigation because the direct participation of the State is required in terms of carrying out somewhat larger expansion works, interventions on bridges that are on public roads that correspond to Roads and also, to carry out rights of way, or where appropriate, expropriations, so that the canals can be built between the main canal and the white farmer who has his surface without canal works.
Saldías commented that some farmers have carried out works with the CNR and with Indap, “but they have been works in their sectors in terminal canals, but the water cannot yet be delivered to them because the conduction canals do not have the capacity, they must be raised. bridges or culverts and create rights of way to connect the irrigation canal with its derived canal sectors.”
He cited as an example the case of the 40 white farmers of the El Faro Canal, in the Santa Clara sector, led by Zenobia Reyes, “where these contests were held, but they only and exclusively fixed the canals and the final connections, but the matrix needed to be fixed. and the Agua community already fixed it, where the El Carmen canal was expanded, so now all that remains is to raise the Los Marcos bridge, in the Los Tilos sector, which depends on the Highway Department. We raised this with the Seremi of Public Works, Paulo De la Fuente, with whom we visited that sector in 2022 and explained to him that, if he raised this bridge a little, 320 hectares would immediately be incorporated into irrigation. It has not been done, therefore, the DOH cannot deliver the water to the canal because it does not have the capacity to reach the Santa Clara sector. That is where we miss the participation of the State, which abandoned the continuation to incorporate these small farmers as a work of the State through DFL 1123.”
Zenobia Reyes commented that they are still waiting for the seremi’s commitment to be fulfilled and explained that, in practice, farmers are irrigating with what is eventually left over, which is subject to the demand of other irrigators, therefore, they cannot plan irrigation since they have no security. “The works have already been done, such as distribution frames and rehabilitation of canals, all that remains is to raise the bridge, this is what we need to be able to irrigate legally, today we are irrigating with distillates that are not ours, we want to irrigate with the rights that we legally have ”, he asserted.
Asked regarding this, the Seremi of Public Works responded that “the Los Marcos bridge is a process that is advancing. The commitments were acquired in the sense of reviewing this requirement that has been unresolved for more than 16 years and we are going to resolve it this year through Roads, already incorporated into the work to be carried out in 2024.”
Abandonment
Francisco Saldías related that, “we did not understand why every time we came from Santiago the issue of whites was unknown by different authorities. We did not know what the truth of this matter was. And we learned regarding it following numerous letters that the leaders of the whites have sent, including to the President of the Republic, the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Public Works. And they always responded that the issue of Los Blancos was going to be solved with a project called Feeder 2. And we did not know why they said that, if Feeder 2 is a large main canal that does not reach the canals and does not carry out these conduction works. , it’s just a part. Well, we officially found out with this letter from the Ministry of Social Development, in response to the questions we asked, which indicates that in 2019 Stage 3 was replaced, which considered precisely the arrangement of channels, repair and distribution, as work of the State; The cycle was not ended and it was replaced by Feeder 2. That is why every time we talked regarding the targets, all the current authorities, who have absolutely nothing to do with it, who are new, who do not know the subject in depth, They related it to the Alimentador 2 project.”
“The truth is that it has been quite painful for all of us to learn regarding this issue, because we learned the truth that the targets were no longer on the radar of the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Agriculture, or the government; and that is why steps will have to be taken now, with this official document, to explain to the authorities who make decisions, the reason why the targets were postponed in 2019 and we hope that in these two years they can be done some works to incorporate whites. If this government is consistent with what it has said, we have every hope that it will be possible to reactivate this issue and that Stage 3 will be resumed, which considers all the studies that are already completed, with detailed studies, so that these can be incorporated. small farmers,” the leader pointed out.
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