In a world where freshwater makes up less than 1% of all available water, allowing massive losses due to inefficiency is an unsustainable contradiction. In the agricultural heart of Madrid’s region, over 50% of the water allocated for irrigation in Sector VII of Aranjuez is lost before it ever reaches the crops. This alarming figure—equivalent to the annual consumption of over 10,000 households—is not just a technical failure; it is a failure of vision. The current system, based on deteriorated asbestos-cement pipes, unlined open canals, and outdated manual valves, generates losses that intensify pressure on the Tagus River and undermine the competitiveness of more than 6,000 hectares of essential farmland.
In response to this reality, a bold project emerges—initiated by the Aranjuez Irrigation Community with a clear vision: to comprehensively modernize the irrigation system and transform every cubic meter lost into useful, traceable, efficient water. The project’s strategic goal is to drastically reduce water losses, increase irrigation efficiency, and build resilience against drought and climate change. Located in the fertile Tagus valley, in the municipality of Aranjuez (Spain), the project targets a region critical to both food security and integrated water resource management.
The project’s purpose is grounded in urgent context: irrigation accounts for more than 80% of total water use in Spain, and water stress in the Tagus basin is already recognized by the CEO Water Mandate as a major risk. Led by the irrigators’ community as the project promoter and supported by specialized technical advisors, this initiative is designed to be auditable under the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA 2.0) methodology. It fully meets the principles of additionality—since the benefits would not occur without this structural action—traceability—through sensors, automated valves, and digital monitoring—and intentionality—as it was purposefully developed to replenish water in a highly exploited and ecologically degraded basin.
This project proposes a radical transformation of the irrigation system in Aranjuez: replacing more than 30 kilometers of asbestos-cement pipes with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes; lining over 10 km of canals using geotextile and PVC sheets; automating gates and valves; building regulation ponds with anti-loss linings; and implementing real-time digital monitoring systems. This comprehensive modernization is expected to reduce current losses by over 70%, recovering more than 3 million m³ of water per year—enough to supply a mid-sized city or to double irrigation efficiency without increasing withdrawals.
The benefits are immediate: enhanced energy efficiency, reduced emissions from water pumping, improved agricultural yields, reduced pressure on the Tagus River, and increased drought resilience. This solution is being driven by the Irrigation Community, in partnership with specialized technical teams and with potential involvement from public and private stakeholders aiming to invest in high-impact, Water Positive projects with measurable returns.
This model is highly replicable across many irrigation districts in Spain and Europe where outdated infrastructure still causes massive water and productivity losses. Taking action now is not only a climate imperative but also a regulatory and financial opportunity: the new Common Agricultural Policy, EU recovery funds, and corporate sustainability commitments demand solutions that combine efficiency, traceability, and positive regional impact.
Agri-food companies, technology providers, insurers, or energy firms that choose to lead such initiatives will position themselves as strategic actors in the water transition. Through this project, they will not only meet ESG goals and SDGs, but also lead a powerful narrative: turning every recovered drop into a story of resilience, collaboration, and shared value. Aranjuez is not just a basin—it is a living laboratory of how we can restore the relationship between water, territory, and the future.
The project proposes a robust, scalable solution grounded in water efficiency, smart automation, and intelligent monitoring:
Together, these solutions result in a quantifiable Water Benefit (VWB), as induced efficiency reduces the total volume required to maintain crop productivity—avoiding unnecessary extractions from the river and contributing to regional water balance.
This project is executed in phased stages, combining infrastructure modernization with smart technologies and local capacity-building:
Technologies and Actions:
Execution Phases:
The system will be operated by the Irrigation Community, with technical support provided through a maintenance contract and remote software updates. Indicator tracking and Water Benefit validation will be managed via Aqua Positive, ensuring full traceability, verification, and transparency for public or regulatory reporting.
This project represents a complete transformation of an inefficient agricultural irrigation network into an automated, efficient, and verifiable system aligned with international standards.
It begins with a joint assessment by the irrigation community and technical experts, identifying inefficiencies in water transfers. From there, the solution is built on automation, sensors, climate monitoring, and remote control—executed in stages from hydraulic mapping to SCADA validation.
Alongside this, a shared governance model is developed: users are trained, data is integrated into platforms like Aqua Positive, and indicators are generated for reporting Volumetric Water Benefits (VWBs).
This intervention not only saves water but ensures that local horticultural and fruit crops remain viable under increasingly scarce conditions. The model is replicable for other agricultural communities across Spain and beyond—supporting sustainable food systems through efficiency, resilience, and full benefit traceability.
