might sound a silly question ...i know that every householder has to have a water meter and pays water rates , but do farmers who water their land and i mean a patch of land not connected to their house have a water meter and pay for that water ..im in tenerife .....

Normally, they drill a well and pump it out of the ground.

sounds good where you are here they have to drill sideways into the volcano
until the water come raining down from the roof ....its solid volcanic rock if you drill directly down more then a feel meters ....

I only answered your question.

I haven't a friggin clue how to get water out of a volcano. But if that was your question, perhaps googling "how to get water out of a volcano" might help.

They have some complex water channel systems in Tenerife for the farmers.
The water passes through a distribution centre where various valves or gates are opened to channel it to a particular farm.
They have to arrange a time beforehand when the supply will be sent.through the appropriate channel but only for a prearranged period of time, as the water is paid for by the hour.

I know a place in Tenerife where they built a huge dam to make a new reservoir.

The reservoir has never held a single drop of water to this day despite the fact that they even drove a great big horizontal tunnel three kms into the mountainside.

yes its outside santa cruz ..its in case there is ever a water shortage they can fill it up in an emergency ...there is one also one in the orotava valle ...this the trout farm being fed by spring water direct from inside the mountain

No thats not the one I refer to which simply wouldn't hold water even if they had enough to fill it.

The water distribution centres are an amazing sight with an absolute maze or jumble of pipes and channels shooting off in all directions.

Around here, there are many houses in the campo that have two supplies. One is metered for domestic consumption and the second is FREE and is primarily intended for the land and/or pool!

I don't know where this second supply comes from but I wish I had it.

I thought there was a domestic rate and a much cheaper agric. rate in most areas of mainland Spain.

Im not sure if they are charged in the Valencia region where the farmers have a massive source of fresh water available from the big lake in Albufera to flood the rice fields.

You mean like these close to Guia de Isora

Brilliant shots Pearl, that's one of the very ones I was thinking of and remember so well.
I never got round to taking photos of it, so you have made my day posting that.

Pity the poor guy who has to operate that system, I think there's only one at a time anyway.
If he doesn't turn up for work with a clear head, the result could be absolute chaos.

Thanks again for that Pearl.

We live in the campo and our only water is agricultural it is unsuitable for drinking or food prep. Pumped straight to our house and land from a reservoir 200 meters away, it is metered but no standing charge we just pay for what we use, it is the same supply used on the agricultural ground surrounding us, there is also a community bill yearly for repair and replacement of the big filters.

who sends you the bill is it the same company as for your domestic water ....
as can i confirm that farmers dont get ´´free´´ water ,unless of course they find it on their own land ...

we have no domestic water just irrigation water from the reservoir pumped into the house, it is the same water that the farmers have for their land. Each resevoir has a 'community' which sends the bill when the meters are read, a group of communities is managed by an agricultural water company I presumed that the farmers pay the same price as we do per cubic meter. When I walk the dogs this evening I will have a nose round and see if there is a sign of the same water box that our meter is kept in.