Orihuela (Alicante) (EFE).- The plenary session of the Valencian Government has authorized this Friday the Generalitat’s Attorney’s Office to file a contentious administrative appeal against the royal decree that reviews the Tagus Hydrological Plan and reduces the flows of the transfer to the Segura, considering that it supposes “serious damage” to Valencian interests.
This was stated at the press conference after the plenary session by the Minister of Agriculture, Isaura Navarro, who stressed that the content of the ninth additional provision included in that royal decree is “absolutely arbitrary and contrary to legality”, because the establishment of the ecological flows in these sections has no “technical justification”.
The Consell, which will request in its appeal the precautionary suspension of ecological flows, highlights that this ninth additional provision is not the one that was submitted to public consultation, it does not correspond to what was voted in the National Water Council and does not comply with what it proposed the Council of State that the measurement of ecological flows be based on the same technical criteria for all rivers.
Navarro has justified the filing of the appeal to defend the interests of the irrigators and the citizens of the south of Alicante, the beneficiaries of a transfer in which, as he has highlighted, 100 cubic hectometres of less water would arrive due to the increase in the flows of the Block.
“Harmful socioeconomic effects”
The Generalitat alludes to the “harmful socioeconomic effects” that may derive from the decrease in water resources, as well as “the lack of technical rigor in the calculations”, and therefore authorizes appealing the royal decree that approved the revision of the plans hydrological data of various river basin districts.
Faced with criticism from the PP about the Consell’s delay in appealing this rule, the Vice President of the Valencian Government, Aitana Mas, stressed that we had to wait for the royal decree to be published in the BOE, which happened last Friday, because They are a “serious and rigorous” Executive, who does not make “fiction politics” or resources on press releases.
Aitana Mas has reproached the PP for dedicating itself to influencing “the confrontation”, because as she has considered “they are making a complete mistake and above all they are using a populist discourse to confront the citizenry”.
The spokesperson for the Consell has stated that the policies that are contrary to the interests of the Valencians will be appealed, but that has to be done once the content of the policies that are harmful is known, since the rest “is an act of faith”.
In his opinion, the Consell has acted in this appeal “with total diligence, and above all in favor of the interests of the Valencians.”
Regarding the accusation of the PP that these ecological flows have already been increased, the Minister of Agriculture has affirmed that in the royal decree the first setting of these corresponds to 2025, and we are still in 2023.
The Valencian Government considers, however, that the royal decree has positive elements for the Valencian Community, such as the coordination of the hydrological plans related to the transfer through the Tajo-Segura aqueduct, the creation of a monitoring program for the state of the masses of water and a bilateral commission to monitor the measures.