Portal de Totana
www.portaldetotana.com
The mayor of Totana, Andrés García Cánovas, has recently raised a motion to the plenary session in November regarding the support to the agricultural sector and the sustainability of the Tajo-Segura aqueduct coinciding with this dry season;
and in which the Government of Spain is urged to maintain the transfer by putting into operation urgently all the necessary measures already proposed to the Ministry in July of this year to ensure its sustainability as a basic pillar of agriculture and employment in our municipality.
In addition, in the same motion it has been agreed to subscribe the so-called "Levantine Manifest for Water", vindicating the durability of the Tajo-Segura Agreement as a basic pillar of the future for our populations.
The first mayor has presented this motion after participating and attending the informative assembly promoted by the Community of Irrigators a few days ago in the theater of the Sociocultural Center "La Cárcel", and where he met first hand the demands of the sector in this municipality and its region.
The agreements of this motion will be agreed in order to bring a joint and firm agreement to the November meeting, together with the agreements included in a very similar motion presented by the Municipal People's Group.
In the motion of the Mayor, it is explained that "to date, the municipality of Totana is in a state of emergency, as is known, for lack of water, suffering three years of total drought." This situation has been aggravated considerably for the closure of the Tajo-Segura Transfer in the month of May 2017, for the sealing of the particular desalobradoras and for the dismantling of the brine product that limits the use of groundwater of high salinity, the situation of the reservoirs of the Segura Basin that are at 13%, and because there is no water available from the Torrevieja desalination plant because all of its production goes to the population's supply ".
This water deficit is causing a significant reduction in agricultural activity, which, in turn, leads to a decrease in employment and will go further if appropriate measures are not taken.
The agriculture of the municipality and its associated agri-food industry contribute millions of euros to the national GDP, generating direct employment.
In addition, large areas of trees and greenhouses are in danger.
Aware of the situation, briefly described, this Mayor's Office, in view of the water forecasts of the Community of Irrigators for the current hydrological year and that these do not cover the water demand of the area's crops, as well as the recent modification of the application of the tariffs of the Transfer that have been carried out for 38 years that suppose, to the Community of Irrigators the accomplishment of a great annual disbursement without guarantees of receiving water coming from the Transfer, manifest not being willing to pay for a water that does not It is supplied to you.
For the Irrigators Community, the priority is the maintenance of the Tajo-Segura Transfer, providing it with greater stability, considering that the rest are complementary measures.
Those measures that have been proposed to the different administrations for years and that would solve virtually all the water problems would be for example: the construction of a network of collectors, a treatment plant and an outfall for the conduction and evacuation for the rejection of the desalobradoras ;
increase the supply of desalinated water (urgently complete the electrical connection of the Torrevieja desalination plant and increase its capacity to 120 hm3, expand the production capacity of the Escombreras desalination plant by more than 25 hm3 and analyze the construction of new desalinization plants).
In addition, it is proposed to streamline infrastructures for the achievement of zero discharge to the Mar Menor (through the application of the drainage water catchment network for irrigation);
commissioning of some 250 private surveys during the period of drought;
favor transfers of rights (water banks);
social price of desalinated water;
and the completion of the National Hydrological Plan so that the necessary hydraulic infrastructures that give stability to the system can be executed.
In short, the water problem is not only due to the lack of rainfall, it is also the lack of necessary infrastructure that can give stability to the system.
The solutions to the infrastructure deficit are viable socioeconomically and environmentally sustainable both in the short, medium and long term, according to a study carried out by the Central Union of Irrigators of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct SCRATS-.
LIFTING MANIFESTO BY WATER
The signatories of this manifesto, an important part of the Spanish citizenship, who live in the Levant provinces of Almeria, Alicante and Murcia want to make a call to the whole country about the situation, now of extreme gravity, that has been living since ancient times, the Levantine garden.
The one that has been a source of pride for the country inside and outside our borders, which supplies the highest percentages of the best fruits and vegetables to our Spanish homes and those of the rest of Europe, is at risk.
He dies.
Putting at the doors of a "mate mate" more than forty-four million trees -with the danger of clear desertification, and a productive model on which 23 percent of the economy of our regions depends.
The promises will not save the garden of Spain if, as in the past, they will not be fulfilled.
The drought of past solutions has given rise to the untenable situation that we live today and that, if the weather does not correct it in a short period of time, leads to the disappearance of the Levantine horticultural sector, a Spanish sign of identity of that branch in the world.
But we go further, although the rains will be generous this year, the Levantians believe that it has to conclude this policy based on downturns whose direct consequence is the delay in time of the arrival of solutions that resolve, once and for all, the shortage of resources that in our lands is endemic and cyclical, periodically affecting our lives and activities.
In short, our way of life and our future.
We are suffering from important restrictions on access to a vital element such as water, and we pay for it in our homes, businesses and crops at the highest price in the country.
There are viable and environmentally sustainable solutions, we are not talking about chimeras.
All of them are contemplated in the technical study that, endorsed by the Circle for Water, was presented to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment and the media last July.
These proposals are substantiated in the following summary:
Guarantee the durability of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct as a basic pillar of the future for our populations.
On it pilots the balance of the remaining resources of different origins, giving them feasibility of costs, quality and possibility of regulation.
Implementation in chronological order, marked by the possibility of the action in question, of the measures included in the study of the Central Union of Irrigators Tajo-Segura, mentioned in the preamble of this manifesto and which are those that are related: a) Normative modifications aimed at facilitating the processing of assignments of rights.
b) The urgent need to achieve the objective of maximum possible production of the desalination plants existing in our demarcation.
c) To continue with the optimization that allows the total use of the volumes coming from the regeneration of waters.
d) Extend until the process of modernization of irrigation in the whole country, making possible an efficient use of the resource.
e) Execution of hydraulic works necessary to guarantee access to water - irrigation and supply - under conditions of equality for all citizens of the country.
Implementation of a rate for irrigation and homes fair and proportionate to the rest of the nation's users.
These demands, which we consider essential to defend the survival of our garden, have the support of farmers and their families, the representatives of the municipalities where the crops are located, the agricultural organizations and all the members of the rest of civil society that are aware of the seriousness of the situation and add their support to them, since it is in the unity and the sum of efforts, where we can sustain their proclamation and defense.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Totana
Privacy policy
- Legal notice
- Cookies