United front over water transfer
AGRICULTURE in the Vega Baja area and Murcia is under threat, according to farmers and politicians in the area.
They state that the farmland which supplies much of the country and is known as the market garden of Europe is dependent on water piped from the River Tajo in Castilla La Mancha to the River Segura.
The increasing unwillingness of this neighbouring region to continue supplying this lifeline is a constant source of friction and has long been used by both sides of the political spectrum to sway voters one way or the other. At a local level these arguments pay little heed to the environmental cost of the Tajo-Segura water transfer, with Castilla La Mancha claiming that too much is being taken to maintain the minimum ecological flow required for the river’s survival, and that their own farmers are being deprived.
The only other reliable supply of water is the Torrevieja desalination plant, which the Socialist party (PSOE) government of José Luis Zapatero proposed in 2004 but was not operational until 2013 and did not reach its production capacity of 80hm3 until 2019, with a
further planned.
Castilla La Mancha regional government, a PSOE stronghold, is taking advantage of having a colleague as prime minister to further reduce the amount of water that can be transferred. This month the national water committee gave initial approval to cutting the maximum monthly transfer from 38 cubic hectometres to 27, and was due to give its definitive approval in a second vote yesterday as Costa Blanca News went to press. expansion being
It is also already working on increasing the minimum ecological flow, which would further cut the amount of water to half what it is now – and this is already half the amount that the project was designed for when it was completed in 1966.
This has outraged local farmers, who are always sensitive to even the slightest interference with their irrigation supply, and political parties are once again falling over themselves to support their cause.
In a rare and reluctant show
of unity, the regional governments of Valencia, Murcia and Andalucía – the former run by the PSOE in a coalition and the other two by the Partido Popular (PP) – made a joint appeal to stop the vote.
Valencia region environment councillor Mireia Mollá questioned the need to increase the ecological flow level and argued it would be better to improve the water quality of the Tajo upriver instead. She said the regional authorities have not ruled out legal action.