Valencian Community and Murcia are considering legal action against ‘misconduct’ in Tagus river management

This was revealed at a press conference held in Murcia before the conference, attended by technical and legal experts on water issues, including Sara Rubira, Minister of Water, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the region, Miguel Baracina, Minister of Agriculture, Water, Livestock and Fisheries of Valenciana, and Lucas Jiménez, president of Scrats.

Specifically, Rubira referred to a report prepared by the Valencian Community that “revealed that more water is being released from the Entrepeñas and Buendía reservoirs than indicated by the current regulations regulating the Tagus River.” In his words, this would be something like this: “How to fill a bathtub with hot water without plugging it”.

He said that this “has led to a significant waste of water in transport to supply the irrigated lands of La Mancha, where 100 cubic hectometers are wasted”, adding that “strangely” the same figure will be the same starting from 2027. “They want to exclude Segura from this transfer.”

Rubira also pointed out that the Valencia study reflects the “total lack” of a monitoring program to manage whether the increase in ecological flow has led to an improvement in the ecological state of the Tagus River, which he specified is “mandated according to the hydrological plan.”

But for the head of the water board, the “most worrying thing” in the face of this situation in the Levante community is that “ lack of transparency Tahoe Waterways Federation” and the national government’s “political, sectarian, ideological, and partisan” decisions.

Mr. Rubira recalled that the decision on relocation “will decide the future of the Murcia region, the Community of Valencia and Andalusia, because we all make a living from the contribution of the relocation,” stressing the importance of there being “the solidarity of the sector and of the entire Levantine society” regarding the maintenance of the relocation.

“There is a lot of courage in Murcia when water is scarce. The local government is going to continue working. They are not going to silence us, they are not going to sit quietly and they are going to do everything necessary to reverse this situation,” he added during a press appearance.

‘Notorious’ use of Tagus river water

Miguel Baracina, the central government’s Minister of Agriculture, Water, Livestock and Fisheries, called for collective action to prevent “one of the greatest ecological attacks this land could ever experience”, while calling the use of Tagus water by the Pedro Sánchez government “infamous”.

“Spain does not have a water problem, but rather a lack of unity,” Baracina said, criticizing that “the Community of Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia count as one cup of water”, while “on the other side, on the other side”, referring to the issue of Castilla-La Mancha.Up to 100 cubic hectometers are lost per year This is because proper regulation cannot be implemented.

“Perhaps those hiding behind this false armchair environmentalism are saying they are concerned about nature,” Baracina said, before going on to say that, according to the aforementioned report, the flow of the Tagus River “in one day” increased “from 20 to 11 cubic meters per second, and then quadrupled to 40 cubic meters per second.”

In his opinion, he feels that “generating electricity” has “nothing to do with the stability of our waterways” in “this game with the water that is probably being played to satisfy some company.”

In line with this, Mr Baracina called for “transparency that the water flooding into Portugal, which is sending twice the agreed amount of water, can be controlled”. “They don’t know what to do with the vast amounts of water in the Atlantic Ocean,” he stressed.

The city council member said that due to the reduction in transfers, “ecological attack” This is because “10 million trees will have to be cut down, which means 1.2 million tons of CO2 will be cleaned from the atmosphere” and cultivated land, which acts as a “firebreak” in case of fire and a “brake” against flooding, will disappear.

Criticism of Page

For its part, its president Lucas Jiménez is confident that next December “the National Water Council will convene and will do what Castilla-La Mancha President Emiliano García-Page has ordered: the approval of exploitation regulations.”

“Some leaders of the Socialist Party in our region have said that the exploitation rules will not be approved. I am sure they will be approved. The one who controls the water issue is the one who shouts the loudest. “And the person who shouts the loudest is the person who defends his political flag the most,” he said.

Lucas pointed out that irrigators “do not feel protected by the local leaders of the government that governs this country” and stressed that “proper flow control management on the Tagus River could save 100 cubic hectmetres”, adding to the benefits of irrigation modernization in the region.

But Jimenez laments that “the money is not being spent, there is no money, and there is no intention to do anything to modernize.”

In response to questions from the media, Lucas called for transparency on the matter. Where will the 600 million euros raised go? Tajo-Segura as a fee for initiating a transfer. “That money isn’t going to the river towns, so where is it?” I imagine a granite square in the capital,” he said.

According to the Scruts chairman, the money must have been used to “make sure that the relocation didn’t cause so much tension in the riverside towns, that is, for sanitary and water diversion works. So that we didn’t have the problems that happened at certain times of the year.”