From paper to facts. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Agriculture prepare a specific line of €20 million for the irrigation of the Campo de Cartagena with the aim of acting in each plot, with solutions at origin, and achieving “fertilize just” to “not return to the territory” water contaminated with nitrates that ends up flowing into the Mar Menor or infiltrating into the aquifer of the region.
Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Moranand general secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fernando Mirandahave met this Wednesday with the Community of Irrigators of Campo de Cartagena and, later, with representatives of the agricultural sector in the Region of Murcia, to advance the investments that the central government intends on Murcian agriculture.
The budget managed by Madrid is close to 1,100 million euros, where the money provided for in the Ecological Transition plan on the Mar Menor (almost 500 million), plus the expansion of the desalination plants in Torrevieja, Valdelentisco and Eagles along with the construction of photovoltaic plants to lower the price of desalinated water production.
The irrigators and the two ministries have already constituted “a table of worked sectorial”Morán pointed out at the end of the meetings, since the intention is “to go hand in hand with the sector” to define the specific actions with that line of 20 million. Miranda, for his part, speaks of “achieving a competitive sector” in an eminently exporting region, which is why he believes it is important that they “perceive” an activity with a “innovative future, quality but also sustainable”. Both Miranda and Morán do not dare to speak of specific deadlines but promise to “accompany the sector in its obligations”, since the farmers “they don’t have much more time”.
Manolo Martinezpresident of the irrigators of Campo de Cartagena, sees “certainty” in the plans of the two ministries and demands to take action now in what refers to the field. It also asks to act on the Sanitation of riverside municipalities to avoid discharges into the lagoon, an action that will have another 20 million and that is already closed with the municipalities.
more time to comply
The term of two months given by the Hydrographic Confederation of the Segura to the irrigators of Cartagena to certify that they comply with the aquifer protection measures It overwhelms the irrigation sector a lot. Some 3,000 farmers they must submit a technical report proving that they do not contaminate the Quaternary and Andalusian, declared at risk of not reaching good quantitative and chemical status in 2020.
Morán has pointed out that the sector “it is already certifying” and transfer the data to the CHS, but it will be left an extension of time to those who do not end up with the complexity of the bureaucracy. “In all cases, when certification mechanisms are launched, there are deadlines where an initial limit is set and then those who have the needs justify that they need an extension, and that extension is studied to comply in the shortest possible time. “.
Asked by the Tajo and Segura basin plansMorán remarks that they are subjected “right now to a strategic environmental assessmentand from what is deduced there, the corresponding decisions will be made”, in reference to the ecological flows foreseen in the Alto Tajo and the impact on the cut of 105 hm3 by the Diversion. “If there are no data that lead to modifying the proposal of the plans, they would not be modified“, he concludes.
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