The territorial delegate of Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, Antonio Mena, has attended in Murcia to the concentration that has been held in front of the Delegation of the Government of Murcia to protest against the approval of the Hydrological Plan of the Tajo-Segura, which will mean a cut in water deliveries through the transfer of this basin to the eastern Almeria. This is a demonstration that has been organised by the Mesas del Agua de la Región de Almería, Murcia and Alicante, where the representative of the Regional Government of Andalusia in the province of Almeria wanted to attend to show his rejection because «this cutback could mean that more than 23,000 hectares will no longer be irrigated and 8,000 workers will go out on the street».
The delegate stressed that in Andalusia they do not understand the decision taken by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge to eliminate the transfer of water from the Tagus-Segura Transfer for irrigation in the Spanish east, by establishing only 7.5 cubic hectometres of the 20 hectometres established in the Commission for the Exploitation of the Aqueduct. In other words, water is only going to be transferred for supply. Mena recalled that «water in Andalusia is like gas in Germany, it is the basic pillar of two fundamental economic sectors for our province, agriculture and tourism».
From the rally, the delegate has assured that it is incomprehensible that this type of decision is adopted at a time of drought like the one we are experiencing, and has stressed that «when the rules of exploitation allow transferring up to 20 hm³/month, the national executive has limited the volume to 7.5 hm³/month and only to supply, leaving irrigators without any contribution despite the fact that the technical criterion was of absolute viability to transfer that water for irrigation».
At the rally, the delegate of Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development has shown that this measure is «both incomprehensible and unjustified, as it will be an insult to the farmers of eastern Almeria who need this water to move forward with their crops.
This is the first rally called by the Mesa del Agua, although they are also considering the possibility of rallying on 20 December in Valencia and on 11 January in Madrid, as those responsible say that «these conditions are going to be a problem for the whole of Almeria, Murcia and Alicante society».