Several members of the Círculo por el Agua, a unit formed by the Water Boards of the regions of Murcia, Almería and Alicante, gather in front of the Palau de la Generalitat Valenciana on December 20 in defense of the Tajo-Segura transfer. 2022.Monica Torres
The President of Valencia, the socialist Ximo Puig, has sent a letter to the Council of State asking listeners to see the final text that has been sent to the above-mentioned advisory body of the draft Royal Decree of the Tejo Basin plan, which concerns the transmission to the Segura River, on which thousands of Alicante farmers depend. The Valencian executive fears – while acknowledging it has no official confirmation – that the Ministry of Ecological Transition (Miteco) has scrapped the clause agreed with Puig last November that would secure water transfers beyond 2025.
The regulation project approved by the National Water Council included an item – the ninth additional provision – essential to ensure the maintenance of the Tajo-Segura transfer, which according to the Central Union of Irrigators of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct generates more than 100,000 Jobs in Alicante, Murcia and Almeria. This provision proposes that from 2025 the status of the Tagus should be assessed and, depending on the situation, “the planned ecological flow should be increased or not”. Otherwise, the gradual increase in water reserves in the Tagus will reduce the surplus of water for the Segura basin over a period of three or four years, a scenario advocated by the government of Castile-La Mancha, chaired by socialist Emiliano García-Page.
The low level of the Tagus reservoirs and the proximity of regional and local elections on May 28 threaten to reignite the water war between autonomous communities ruled by parties of different political persuasions. The conflicting interests of Andalusia and Murcia, in the hands of the PP, and Castile-La Mancha and the Valencian Community, the PSOE, are hampering each party’s strategies ahead of the May elections.
The Valencian government assures that any change or deletion contained in this latest draft of the Council of State’s decree-law will meet with the “firmest opposition” of the autonomous executive, Generalitat sources warn. Puig asks the third vice-president, Teresa Ribera, to keep the clause: “The Valencian Generalitat will take all the measures in its power to defend the continuity of the Tajo-Segura transfer and thus support the legitimate demands of the Alicante irrigation companies”, he assures.
The Council of State is now required to give an opinion on the draft Royal Decree relating to the river basin management plans for certain boundaries before submitting it to the Council of Ministers for final approval. For this reason, the Consell has requested a hearing by the government’s advisory body to present allegations, while reaffirming its commitment to defending the Valencian irrigation companies and its willingness to explore all possible avenues to ensure the transfer of water.
In addition, the Valencian Executive received with astonishment the decision of the Ministry and of the public company Acuamed, which manages desalinated water in Spain, to cancel the subsidies it had granted to the desalinated water used by the irrigation systems of the Tajo-Segura aqueduct and in practice this means three times its prices. Puig has asked the government “to redirect the situation because we are talking about an area where agriculture plays a very important role and is particularly sensitive to the price of water”. She also believes that the current situation “makes a decision of this nature inadvisable” and urges Pedro Sánchez’s executive to “maintain the desalinated water subsidy at a level that is affordable for irrigation companies.”
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Sources from the Ministry of Ecological Transition indicate that the text that was finally transmitted to the State Council is the one agreed in the National Water Council for compliance with regulations and the execution of Supreme Court judgments made in recent times have given the right to Castilla-La Mancha in aspects related to the transfer against the resources presented by the Government of Murcia or the Southeastern Irrigation Associations. The Minister for Sustainable Development of Castile-La Mancha, José Luis Escudero, assured this Tuesday that the draft submitted to the Council of State reflects what “the regional government intended, namely a gradual increase in the ecological flow. ”
Ecological Transition sources add that “the agreement secures investments of more than 8,000 million in this new water cycle, anticipating the risks of climate change and providing the largest sum ever allocated in Spain to this area.” The department of Teresa Ribera ensure “transparency and dialogue with all stakeholders involved and ensure comprehensive accountability for compliance with investment milestones”.
The President of the People’s Party of the Autonomous Community of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, has responded to the comments made by Ximo Puig, who said that “he has no moral authority to speak about the transfer”. “We have 22 unjustified cuts in transmission without any technical report supporting it and one report in the Council of State with a very serious cut in which Puig has been silent. It has neither moral nor political authority to speak of transfer. He lost it because he wants to keep deceiving us,” the PP chief said.