Podemos CLM has made an initial assessment of the document voted by the National Water Council, which will form the basis of the Royal Decree project for the revision of hydrological plans, including the Tagus, and which concerns Castilla – Maquis. After his detailed reading, the purple formation asked Emiliano García-Page to explain “with the truth” why he voted in favor of the Tagus plan when he “mortgages the future of the river”.
José Luis García Gascón, candidate for the presidency of the Council and regional coordinator of Podemos CLM, was “surprised” by the “change of criteria of the Castilian-Manchego executive within 24 hours, without there having been a modification of the document between his previous criticisms and signing on behalf of the region”, basing his statements on the maintenance of the ninth additional provision, according to information from the Valencian government and social organizations participating in the National Water Council.
The formation said that “our position is firm and clear, because we continue to be and will be with civil society, with groups in defense of the Tagus and with environmental organizations, defending the authentic sustainability of the river, without subterfuge or transfers , as Page does secretly, nor against all of Castile-La Mancha, as Paco Núñez’s PP does”. In this sense, Podemos CLM has expressed its “absolute support” to the work carried out by the Red Ciudadana del Tagus, the people who work in academic research for the Tagus in our region and Ecologistas en Acción, and highlighted “the courage and perseverance of these organizations, which are the ones that truly represent the noble interests of the Tagus and those that guarantee its sustainability, in the face to the disbandment of governments and parties in Castilla-La Mancha”. Furthermore, he established that “the Page government will never defend the Tagus or stop the transfer, because it has created a new one”, in reference to the “Manchego pipeline”, which increases by 50 hm3 “the unbearable pressure of the Tagus-Segura”.
“We will continue to defend the Tagus together with organizations and the Internet”
Gascón explained that “Page has given the green light to the draft without eliminating the controversial ninth additional measure, which affects ecological flows” and establishes the approval of the ‘Special program for monitoring the state of water masses and the sustainability of uses in the area of the Tajo-Segura’ Aqueduct. The aforementioned provision of the document establishes that “if the measures applied meet the environmental objectives set for these bodies of water, in which case it will not be necessary to apply the measures envisaged by the hydrological plan starting from 1 January 2026 to the minimum flows in force since the approval of the plan”.
Although, as explained by the regional executive, the increase in the volume of the minimum average annual ecological flows from 6 to 7 cubic meters per second is apparently “good news”, to then bring them to 8.65 from 2026, Podemos CLM assessed that “with the conditioning that is contained in the ninth additional provision, these hypothetical flows remain on paper and will substantially depend on the political decision of the governments in power, which does not give us any guarantee of their effective compliance”. The data that the Confederation has calculated as ecological flow for Aranjuez “it will begin to be implemented in 2027 and this violates the sentence of the Supreme Court, since it should have been operational since last January 1, 2022, so already We are going late,” they said.
For Podemos CLM, “Page’s euphoric reaction” translates into “a historic lost opportunity to defend the future of the Tagus, in which Page’s regional government has given up and has not been able to fully defend, or has not been able , the real interests of Castile-La Mancha for the sustainable management of our river”. For this reason, they add, “we hope that the sentences will be processed immediately and that the plan will not arrive in Brussels in these conditions and, if it does, we will every effort to prevent it from going ahead, because the false figure of ‘ecological flows’ for something else, such as the perpetuation of transfers and the overexploitation of the river”.
“Ayuso will not lift a finger in the Tagus from the Community of Madrid”
José Luis García Gascón insisted, however, on the “problems for the Tagus that derive from the poor purification carried out by the Community of Madrid and in our own region” and put in a bad light “the mismanagement of the successive administrations of the Madrid PP” . On this last point, he stated that “unfortunately, given the absolute disinterest of the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso for the environment, we do not expect him to lift a finger in the Tagus, as none of his predecessors did”.
Similarly, Podemos CLM wanted to underline that “the climate emergency and the changes we are observing in rainfall indicate that external conditions will not improve by themselves”. In this sense, they recalled that the current reserve of the Tagus basin stands at 40.14%, or 3.79% less than in the same week of 2021 and 5.69% less than the average of the last ten years. “Not taking these data into account, not taking into account the climate emergency and continuing with transfer policies for political interests, instead of looking for other more environmentally sustainable solutions, is a new and gross mistake,” said Gascón . Meanwhile, he concluded, “from Podemos CLM we will not give up our efforts to defend a living Tagus, always together with the Network and ecological and environmental organizations, thinking about the sustainable future of our river and Castile-La Mancha”.
