Madrid/Toledo/València/Alicante (EFE) Tagus River, which affects the Tagus-Segura transfer.
In its ordinary meeting this Thursday, the Permanent Commission of the highest government advisory body has unanimously approved the opinion regarding the new hydrological plans, a report that may or may not be favorable, or not, to the legislative project that has raised controversy in recent weeks due to the creation of the Tagus ecological flow.
The “new battle for water” takes place at the end of 2022, when the National Water Council approved the third cycle of hydrological plans for the different basins, including the Tagus, and which include the “ecological flows »: minimum water flows that must flow through rivers.
In any case, the report issued by the Council of State is not binding, and only reflects the position of this entity with respect to what the royal decree proposes, on its form or its content, as EFE has been insisted by this body, which They indicate that they cannot report the content of the opinion.
Other issues were also dealt with at the meeting, such as the maritime spatial planning plans for the five Spanish marine demarcations.
THE COUNCIL WILL DEFEND THE IRRIGATORS
The Generalitat is unaware of the content of the opinion regarding the ecological flow of the Tagus River but in any case it has maintained its intention to use all means available to it in defense of farmers in the south of the Valencian Community.
Sources from the Consell have pointed out to EFE that they are unaware of the specific content of what was decided by the Council of State but have added that the Valencian Executive will use “any way in defense of the irrigators of Alicante”, in addition to, in any case, maintaining ” The channels of dialogue are open.
Hours before it was known that there is an opinion from the Council of State, at the Madrid International Tourism Fair (FITUR), the president of the Generaltat, Ximo Puig, was asked by journalists about this matter and recalled that the Consell defends « a ‘mix’ of all the sources (of water) that we have at our disposal» where the Tajo-Segura transfer «is inalienable as is desalination and all the works that the Government initiative is currently attached to».
THE PP SEES IT “A HACK”
The president of the Provincial Council of Alicante and the PP of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, has assured that the approval of the report on the Royal Decree Project by which the Tagus plan is revised supposes “the greatest ax blow” to the Tajo- History sure.
Mazón has criticized that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the Generalitat “have already achieved what they wanted after 22 cuts” and has maintained that he will take “all possible measures” to “reverse and argue” this plan, on a path that will be “very difficult and irreparable” and in which, however, he hopes that the “damage” to the transfer will not be “irreversible”.
“We are advancing in the face of irreparable damage to the province of Alicante that is going to affect the orchards of Europe, sustainability, agriculture, the economy of the thousands of families who live from the transfer and consumer prices,” he said. the popular leader pointed out in a statement.
He has insisted that “the announced death of the transfer be consummated with the plans of the PSOE” and has said that the central government “destroys a solidarity infrastructure in the face of Puig’s complicit silence, which has done nothing to prevent it.”
In this sense, he has affirmed that Puig “is a president who abstains and his actions give him away”, and he has denounced that the president “nobody believes him anymore”.
Finally, it has been highlighted that this opinion cuts the Tagus-Segura transfer “without technical criteria” for which it cuts “Alicante’s water rights without justification”.
REACTION OF FARMERS TO THE DECISION OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE
The Unió Llauradora i Ramadera has asked the Government to ignore everything that refers to the Tajo-Segura transfer in the opinion on the revision of the hydrological plans and to sit down to negotiate and not enter “into a new absurd water war”.
For the Unió, the decision of the Council of State to validate the opinion of the draft royal decree to review the 12 hydrological plans (2022-27) “does not remove an iota of legitimacy from the demands” of this agrarian organization and of the Alicante irrigators.
In a statement, it has indicated that this opinion includes the setting of ecological flows in the Tagus and supposes a reduction of the contributions to the transfer to the Segura.
Likewise, he recalled that the decision of the Council of State “is not binding”, for which reason he considers that the Government “should ignore everything that refers to the transfer to sit down to negotiate and not enter into a new absurd water war”.
From the Unió, they have warned that the Alicante agricultural sector “hangs by a thread” and have indicated that the reality at the moment indicates that there are no “other viable alternatives to transfer with an affordable price so that farmers can maintain their farms” .
CONCENTRACIÓN FRONT OF MONCLOA
Asaja-Alicante has shown its “clear disagreement” with the decision of the Council of State since it “consumes the cut in the Tajo-Segura transfer”, and has announced that it will meet next Tuesday the 24th in front of the Moncloa Palace to “defend the continuity of the transfer”.
The agrarian collective has regretted in a statement that the Council of State “has not contemplated the provision that opened the door to negotiate downwards in 2026 the amount of water from the ecological flow of the river”, which, as they have explained, will be 8 65 cubic meters per second and have denounced that the water from the transfer will be cut by more than 100 cubic hectometres per year.
“We regret that a body that is designed to rule on the consultations made by the Government, ensuring compliance with the Constitution, that of the rest of the legal system and for the proper functioning of the Public Administration and Public Services, endorses a decision that will totally against the general interest of this country”, they have maintained.
The president of Asaja Alicante, José Vicente Andreu, has criticized that this decision violates “the equitable distribution of water between communities” and supports a decree whose cost will be “the cut in transfers from the Tagus to Segura by 105 cubic hectometres per year, the loss of 15,000 direct jobs in Alicante and Murcia and an economic cost that will reach 5,692 million euros.
«We have demonstrated on the streets, in Alicante, Murcia and Madrid, and we have informed about the economic scope of this cut, so now, at the gates of an election, the citizen has all the information to express their rejection of a minister -in reference to Teresa Ribera- who has opted for unilateralism and lies”, they have concluded from the group.
THE DECISION OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE, “A CLEAR PROGRESS” FOR CASTILLA-LA MANCHA
The Government of Castilla-La Mancha has stressed that it is “clear progress” that the Council of State has unanimously approved the report on the Draft Royal Decree by which the 12 river basin management plans are reviewed, including the Tagus which supposes the creation of the ecological flow for said river.
Regional government sources have valued EFE’s approval of said document, although they have indicated that they do not know the content of the approved opinion.
In any case, they have been satisfied that the law has been complied with, with the word given to the Castilian-Machego Executive and with five Supreme Court rulings, which include the need to establish an ecological flow in the Tagus River.
Therefore, they have ensured that it is a “clear advance” and very beneficial for the positions of Castilla-La Mancha.
