he project team had the opportunity to meet and talk with farmers from the villages of Sopot and Marena in the municipality of Kavadarci, potential users of the K-36 Sopot irrigation system. The system, located in the Tikvesh region, is planned to irrigate 290 hectares of arable land, divided between the two villages. Meetings with farmers were held on June 11 and 20, 2019.
Consultations were organized in order to discuss distribution lines for the irrigation system. The project team based, on a detail map review, has indicated certain issues related to tracing of pipelines in the area of Lazarica. In order to avoid “problematic” situations during construction phase, the project team invited the interested farmers to jointly discuss the pipeline tracing and to decide which approach will be the best viable solution. The ownership of the parcels is mixed, state and private property. The system design proposes the secondary network to follow the cadastral trails as the most optimized solution from technical side. The farmers agree that the pipeline design should follow cadastral trials and the “problematic” parcels will be discussed on spot when main design will be prepared.
Farmers also expressed interest for increasing the irrigation area and if there is a possibility, the irrigated area to be extended to max 330 ha.
The signing of consent statements was also discussed with farmers, since the number of 51% consent is still not achieved. It was clearly stated to the farmers that the deadline for signing statements is July 1, 2019.