First conviction in the Urgell Canal for closing irrigation in 2023 due to drought

BarcelonaThe administrative court number 1 of Lleida has condemned the General Community of Irrigators of the Urgell Canals to compensate a farmer from Almadraba de Seana who was unable to irrigate his corn fields due to the closure of the canal in 2023 due to drought. The farmer sued the Irrigation Community, which refused to compensate him, arguing that he had already received aid from the Generalitat from the drought decree.

The court ordered the Irrigation Community to pay 2,451.58 euros to the farmer for the expenses incurred in preparing the fields, which, due to lack of irrigation, ended up losing 100% of the harvest. This money corresponds to the work of preparing the soil, sowing and herbicide. The farmer argued in his claim that no one warned him that, as happened later, he would not be able to irrigate the fields. This first sentence would open the door to many other farmers who lost their harvest due to lack of irrigation.

The Irrigation Community requested that the Zurich insurance company be included in the procedure, which declined any liability because the Community's policy expressly excludes from its insurance any liability for "the interruption or reduction of the water supply due to natural phenomena, regulatory requirements, decisions of the same insured board".

Compensation from the Generalitat

The Irrigation Community also argued that the farmer received 6,546.21 euros from the Generalitat as aid for the drought. The judge established that this money did not correspond to the corn plantation, but to other farms that were planted with barley and triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye).

The sentence states that, despite the indications, the Canal did not prohibit the planting of corn, and rules out that the closure of irrigation was due to a cause of force majeure because "without denying the exceptional situation that was determined by the strong drought, the defendant [the Irrigation Community] knew the exceptional circumstances of the drought." The sentence establishes that the information that the Irrigation Community gave to the farmers "was neither sufficient nor foresighted."