The Central Irrigation Union of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct (80,000 farmers in Murcia, Almería and Alicante) have once again raise a war footing against the government After having official proof of the increase in the ecological flow of the Tagus in Toledo and Aranjuezwhich in your opinion will mean will mean the elimination of 25,000 hectares of irrigated land and 5,000 jobs.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge does not give in and to recover the river course of the Tagus, clouded by the poorly treated waters in Madrid, “sacrifices the irrigation of the Spanish southeast& rdquor ;, which rejects, out of face, the water from desalination plants, indicate those affected.
The controversy jumped to the present three years ago and, far from fading away, it has become even more entrenched, since this month the new 2022-2027 hydrological plans will be known, including that of the Tagus, which has an ecological flow of 6 cubic meters per second and is going to doublewhich will directly affect the transfer.
Total, the increase in ecological flows will represent the loss of 105 cubic hectometres of water from the diversion every year, which must be supplied by desalinated water. A demand that, today, cannot be met by desalination plants due to their lack of production capacity. In addition, according to those affected, it has a unsustainable priceeven with this year’s subsidy, which has left it around 0.5 euros per cubic meter.
“This past week we celebrated the 43rd anniversary of the arrival of the first and supportive waters of the Tagus to the Segura basin. In any part of the world, water is synonymous with life.of generation of ways of life, in short, of progress and development & rdquor ;, reads the statement by Lucas Jiménez, president of the Central Irrigation Union.
environmental balance
“In the driest provinces in Europe, Alicante, Almería and Murciawe were able to quickly understand how to transport that water and direct it towards social and economic development, not only in our provinces, but also in the Spanish nation itself”, adds Jiménez.
Business and agricultural organizations stress that The balance that the transfer waters contribute to the system of mixing rates and quality of resources is essential for the social and economic support of the affected provinces..
“You can coexist with other resources, but not live in the absence of transfers. Levante lives in a permanent environmental, economic and social balance based on the multiplicity of resources, whose indisputable pillar is the water from the transfer& rdquor ;, they point.
“Are responsible societiesthat for years we have lived immersed in the scarcity of resources without reaching, not even remotely, the limit of business and population growth that our prodigious climate could allow us, in a clear exercise of commitment to environmental balance& rdquor ;, they add.
“Aware like no one else of scarcity, we have instilled and assumed, generation after generation, saving water as a way of understanding and projecting life into the future. Saving in homes, in businesses, in orchards is the resilient brand that characterizes the Spanish Levant & rdquor ;, the farmers cry out.
They regret that the effort carried out for 43 years by ordinary citizens, administrations, irrigation communities, farmers, ranchers, businessmen and cooperatives from all sectors in order to achieve what may be “the most circular water-oriented economy in Europe and the worldhas gone unnoticed outside our borders and sometimes within them too & rdquor ;.
“Turbid political dialectic”
“The water resource should never have entered the political parlor gamethe transparency of the water should never have become cloudy with murky political dialectic& rdquor ;, point out the complainants.
Lucas Jiménez warns, in this sense, that Murcia, Alicante and Almería cannot see their expectations of transfer water reduced by 50%. If the draft Hydrological Plan for the Tagus is consolidated, it would be 105 million cubic meters of water (one hundred thousand million liters per year).
“This reduction of the Tagus-Segura planned for would already affect the whole of the irrigation dependent on the aqueduct”. All endowments would be reduced and, ultimately, the whole of one of the most sophisticated and sustainable irrigation systems in the world could be in danger. And with it, according to irrigators and businessmen, “the future possibilities of supplying the more than two and a half million people who live and drink in our homes, water from the Tajo-Segura transfer. Job losses, unfortunately, are not exact no matter how hard we try to make numbers & rdquor ;, they warn.
“One, a thousand, five thousand or fifteen thousand, unemployed, more than one, thousand, five thousand or ten thousand family and social dramas that, regardless of the difficult times we are experiencing, these provinces cannot allow themselves even in the future” warns the president of the union.
Asaja Alicante personally appeals to the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, to defend with all his political weight the maintenance of the Tajo-Segura transfer in this key week phase of drafting and reviewing the basin hydrological plans.
Job and wealth destruction
“We need a strong and forceful position from the president, from Minister Mollà and from all the senior officials of the Generalitat against the increase in the ecological flows of the Tagus. Especially when we get news that in other basins of the country the requests of farmers are being met to maintain the current flows & rdquor ;, says José Vicente Andreu, president of Asaja Alicante.
Andreu applauds the support given to the president of the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS), Mario Andrés Urrea, and urges him to double his efforts. “We are not willing to give up our way of life&rdquor ;, ditch the agrarian leader.
Andreu believes that Vice President Teresa Ribera should “come to her senses & rdquor; and give up increasing ecological flows.
“Ribera intends to leave the transfer exclusively for supply and limit irrigation to 105 cubic hectometers per year, which would imply a brutal destruction of employment and wealth that we are not willing to assume. It would mean replacing the transferred water with desalinated water and the gradual closure of the pipeline. We are not going to tolerate that they impose that mortgage on us & rdquor ;, assures the president of Asaja Alicante.