Seville (EFE) the threats of the EU to fine Spain if more irrigation is legalized and the opposition of the central government.
46 days before the municipal elections, the PP and Vox groups have supported urgently processing a law that has been directly rejected by the rest of the opposition (PSOE-A, Por Andalucía and Adelante Andalucía) and that it could be definitively approved by the plenary session of Parliament in mid-May in the shortest of scenarios, or in mid-July.
The bill recognizes some 800 hectares of the Huelva municipalities of Almonte, Bonares, Lucena del Puerto, Moguer and Rociana del Condado as agricultural, which is questioned by the European Commission, which threatens fines, and the central government, which will appeal to the Court Constitutional for “invasion” of powers if approved.
The Andalusian Government defends that, despite the expansion of irrigation, it will not authorize any extraction of water from the Doñana aquifer, depleted by illegal wells and the drought, and that the right to irrigate new hectares will be granted through the surface water that It would arrive through the transfer of the Odiel-Tinto-Piedra demarcation that, according to the Board, the State has to undertake.
Against and in favor of the law
The opposition maintains, however, that the only transfer of surface water (19.9 hectometres) authorized by law and provided for by the Guadalquivir Confederation is for authorizations already assigned in order to reduce the pressure on the Doñana aquifer and comply with the demands of Brussels.
The PP and Vox intend to provide a solution to farmers and irrigators in the area who have denounced that the previous Strawberry Plan (2014) left them out despite already having activity in the area, essentially the cultivation of strawberries and red berries. .
The rejection of the proposal has been joined by the majority of the scientists and agents represented in the Doñana Participation Council, whose president, Miguel Delibes, sees the proposal as “very negative” because “it only generates tension and feeds the conflict”. .
The legal offensive against the law has also been joined by Unidas Podemos, which has advanced its intention to take it to the TC when it is approved, while IU has requested the European Commission to adopt precautionary measures and paralyze the development of the proposal if Moreno does not rectify.
The law that increases the tension in the water war in Doñana
With the “water war” open in the surroundings of Doñana, the tension and reproaches between the groups have marked the parliamentary debate on the expansion of irrigation, in which the president of the Board has been absent, who only attended to vote .
With the presence of farmers from the area, the popular speaker for the law, Manuel Andrés González, has defended that the proposal has the objective of compensating the damage caused to hundreds of small farmers who were excluded by the Strawberry Plan and has demanded to the PSOE-A and the Government that “do not lie or misrepresent” because the future of many families is at stake.
The initiative, he has remarked, “has nothing to do” with water or with Doñana, it is about the “classification of lands to do justice” to farmers who “can be nourished” by surface water “without touching” the Doñana aquifer .
In similar terms, Vox deputy Rafael Segovia has located the objective of the expansion in the idea of ”defending” Doñana from the “lies, betrayal and malice of those who criminalize” farmers, an attitude of which he accused the PSOE and the rest of the left.
The PSOE to Moreno: Promises water that does not exist to campaign
Socialist legislators Mario Jiménez has described the law as an “immense farce, fraud and deceit” for farmers, who has accused Moreno of “promising water that does not exist” to “run” an electoral campaign and “take advantage of the anguish” of the farmers to whom he “lies”.
“It is a full stop law for those who have broken the law by expanding the irrigable area by 1,000 hectares in the midst of a drought. Moreno has taken off his moderate mask and is now a national benchmark for environmental denial,” he denounced.
In addition, he has reproached the president for “destroying” the international image of Andalusia, although he has admitted that there are farmers who were left out of irrigation in the latest regulation and that a solution must be given to them.
Inmaculada Nieto (For Andalusia) has accused the PP of generating “false” expectations in the area for a handful of votes, which causes “damage” to the image of strawberries and red fruits, “muddies” coexistence and places the Park of Doñana in an “unassumable” situation.
In addition, it has warned that one of the articles of the law “enables the use of water from the aquifer” of Doñana.
Maribel Mora (Adelante Andalucía) has summarized the law as a parliamentary “shame”, a “false and misleading” promise to get votes in the municipal elections, and has stressed that it lacks environmental and territorial impact reports.
Conservationists warn that they will insist on Europe to denounce the law and preserve Doñana
The conservation organizations WWF and Ecologistas en Acción have warned this Wednesday that they will insist on denouncing before the European Union everything related to the proposed law for the reordering of irrigation land in the North Crown of Doñana, which is being processed in Parliament.
In this way, from WWF, in a statement, they have indicated that they will inform the European Commission and international authorities of “this new step” that constitutes a flagrant violation of the ruling of the European Court of Justice. In addition, the delicate state of conservation in which Doñana is found will worsen.
The organization has lamented that just two days after, at the Doñana Participation Council, the scientists from the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC) denounced the critical situation that this World Heritage Site reserve is going through with a devastating report, the PP and Vox continue forward in their purpose of approving the bill that “ignores science and legality.”
They have recalled that the lawyers of the Andalusian Parliament do not find it justified that the processing of this law is a reasonable and proportionate measure to face the modification of the Strawberry Plan and that the European Commission has warned that if its processing is successful, a ” flagrant violation” of the judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) for which it condemned Spain.
Ecologists in Action considers that they are violating the preservation of Doñana for economic interests
For its part, from Ecologistas en Acción it is considered that “the superior public interest of Doñana is being systematically violated and subordinated to economic interests that go against it and against the socioeconomic values that are compatible with its conservation.”
For this reason, they have indicated that they will go to the higher authorities that can protect their values and their integrity, such as Unesco and the European Commission, to safeguard their natural resources and their biodiversity, which are what, after all, sustain and They provide a future of roots and well-being to the populations of the region.
Both organizations consider that it is an “electoral, short-term and not very responsible” proposal.