The benefits of the implementation in Ciego de Ávila of the international Euroclima project are beginning to be noticed in the more precise measurement of the parameters of the hydrological cycle, and in elements that will allow a better use of drinking water reservoirs.

Rafael González-Abreu Fernández, provincial coordinator of this initiative promoted by the European Union, told Invasor that 17 pieces of equipment were successfully installed to measure well levels and record rainfall, in which specialists from the National Resources Institute participated. Hydraulics together with specialists from Ciego de Ávila, who were trained in the process, to guarantee the sustainability of the maintenance and operation of modern technology.

In the case of Ruspoli, one of the main sources of supply to the provincial capital, it specifies that a pluviograph was installed, which allows the measurement of rain, its intensity, frequency and duration, as well as a level sensor equipment of the aquifer.

With this combination, the specialists will know when it starts to rain and the moment in which the underground basin begins to react to the precipitations.

The report of such variables in real time, added to the definition of the delay times between the rains that fall in the Ruspoli feeding zone and the response of the aquifer with different parameters in its extraction zone, in which they are currently working, It will be a significant step in the investigation of groundwater and its behavior, commented the also main specialist of the Ciego de Ávila Hydraulic Exploitation Company.

González-Abreu Fernández explains that what was previously stated was obtained empirically, thanks to the accumulated knowledge of a long time, but with the operation of the modern equipment donated by Euroclima it will be much easier, largely due to the high level of information offered by these technologies, that will allow a complete overturning of the hydrology of this province, especially in the investigations of groundwater and its behavior.

Journey to the center of the aquifer

With more than 800 million cubic meters, the underground water basins of Ciego de Ávila are a guarantee for the normal performance of the economy and society, however, recurring periods of drought put them at risk.

Among the novelties of the international project is the training of specialists for the use of an ultrasonic flowmeter, which will be applied in hydrometry, related to the measurement of the exploitation of water resources controlled by Hydraulic Exploitation in the territory, he added.

With this equipment, the hydrometers of high-consumer clients in the province will be calibrated, which will result in more precision in the control of delivery and consumption volumes in agriculture, industry, and human supply.

“One of the weaknesses that we have in the management of the resource is that, for example, in Agriculture there are thousands of wells, but none with an extraction permit, as established by the Terrestrial Water Law. Now we are going to adjust this through modern equipment to know in detail parameters of the well such as its depth and the impellers, casing and discharge pipe diameter, volume authorized to extract and capacity”.

Convergence between research projects will also occur; Well, experimentally, a measurement equipment with a salinity sensor in groundwater was installed in the Peonía area, which, if it gives good results, is then expected to enter six of these equipments through the Mi Costa project for their respective wells throughout the length and breadth of the coastline of the southern slope of Ciego de Ávila.

"They will be a kind of six police officers for control and surveillance, which will lead us to issue criteria for water quality and saline intrusion," concluded the hydrogeologist and Master's in Environmental Management.