Comunidad de regantes: La Laguna

Background

RICAMPO, a company specialising and leading in irrigation systems, hydraulic infrastructure, water treatment and energy management, has been awarded the project to modernise the irrigation systems of the “La Laguna” Irrigation Community.
The project includes 3 reservoirs for the storage of 1.8 Hm3 of water, for which Sotrafa’s ALVATECH 5002 geomembrane has been chosen as the waterproofing solution.
The entire irrigation area is located in the municipalities of Baeza and Mancha Real (Jaén), on the left bank of the Guadalquivir River and north of the A-316 road, which is the entire area between Arroyo Vil and Torres River.
The irrigable area is 1,209.50 ha of olive groves with localised drip irrigation, and is made up of 360 cadastral plots, corresponding to around 274 community members.

Challenge

With this project to update the “La Laguna” Irrigation Community, the aim is to provide the C.R. de La Laguna with a new water storage for the irrigation of its olive groves that avoids, as far as possible, the main and essential use of the Wetland of the Natural Park; and that allows an independence in the distribution and storage of water between both environments, the Environmental and the Agricultural, and that allows to take advantage of the volumes of water available in the seasons where, although irrigation is not necessary, is where more rainfall is concentrated and therefore is when there is more water available in the river.
The aim is also to adapt, adapt and modernise the water transport pipelines to the different storage points, by means of new pipe layouts to the planned reservoirs and the pressurised piping of the main canal or irrigation channel.

The solution

For the storage of approximately 1.8 Hm3 of water, 3 reservoirs are proposed to guarantee, on the one hand, the environmental viability of the existing Laguna Grande, and on the other, to allow a desirable autonomy in the irrigation of the olive trees of the irrigation community. The solution chosen for this waterproofing is ALVATECH 5002 geomembrane, 1.5 mm thick and smooth on both sides. Specifically, a total of 185,000 m2 of geomembrane was installed on a 250 geotextile. One of the main reasons for choosing the ALVATECH 5002 geomembrane is the 7.5 m width of the rolls, as it guarantees superior performance, which translates into shorter installation time and reduced costs. Another major advantage of this width is fewer welds and therefore less risk of leaks and less time for testing.
All this, together with the excellent mechanical properties of SOTRAFA’s ALVATECH 5002 geomembrane and RICAMPO’s extensive experience in this type of project, has resulted in a successful
project to modernise the irrigation facilities for the “La Laguna” Irrigation Community.