Water war warning
Provincial government says tap water supply to homes could be hit
Alicante provincial government says tap water supply to homes could be hit by new central government policies
THE PROVINCIAL government has claimed that actions of the national government ‘could hit the provision of water for one million residents in Alicante province’.
President of Alicante province Carlos Mazón and his deputies met with 20 mayors last week to discuss their opposition to the alleged threat to the water transfer from the Tajo River.
Changing the criteria for receiving this water would have serious consequences for householders and farmers, he noted.
The Tajo River is the longest in Spain and runs for more than 1,000 kilometres from its source in Teruel province to reach the sea at Lisbon.
Its reservoirs in the region of Castilla-La Mancha have provided water for Alicante province and Murcia region for decades but a drought in central Spain in recent years has meant the government has refused to allow regular transfers of water from that area.
Earlier this month reservoirs on the Tajo were at 53.5% of total capacity compared to 39% in the Segura basin.
However, Sr Mazón noted that the government is proposing increasing the ‘ecological levels’ of the Tajo, which would mean that there would need to be more water stored in the reservoirs in order for a transfer to Alicante to take place.
He met with mayors ‘who are affected by the cutting of the water transfer’.
Sr Mazón said they had agreed to ‘find consensus’ on how to challenge the threat.
Provincial deputy for water, Ana Serna said. “This does not just affect agriculture, it will hit the supply of tap water to homes as well.”
She noted that 35 municipalities in the province rely on water from the transfer, ‘which is one million people – a figure which rises by 700,000 during the summer’.
Sra Serna said that ‘on occasion’ 60% of the supply for the area relies exclusively on water which comes from the Tajo to the Segura basin in the south of the province.
“If they make us dependent on desalination plants then the cost of water will rise considerably,” she said.
“We think that it is important that farmers, residents and mayors should unite and move forward together over this and make objections to the government as a united front.”
She claimed that the current ecological level for the Tajo ‘is correct’ and this does not need to be increased to protect the river.