The regional government of Murcia will devote this year almost 116 million euros in the Action Plan for the Mar Menor advanced this week to the ESC and which will cover a total of 139 budget projects to recover the salt lagoon.
As announced yesterday by the Regional Ministry for the Environment, Universities, Research and the Mar Menor, more than 88 million euros will go towards the development of environmental measures, which have twelve lines of application, while another 33 million will go towards the development of socio-economic measures, which in turn will have six lines of study.
Among the environmental measures, the most important one in terms of the amount budgeted is ‘Actions for decarbonisation’, which with 18,368,333 euros, or nearly 16%, includes the purchase of electric buses and recharging points for the municipalities around the salt lagoon. For the ‘Elimination of excess nutrients’ nearly 15 million euros (12.7%) will be dedicated.
Decarbonisation measures include the purchase of electric buses and charging points.
On this point, it is worth mentioning the removal of biomass, a project for which 8 million of own funds have been budgeted to eliminate excess nutrients; or investment in the technification and innovation of agriculture, with more than 3 million.
Likewise, for the ‘Improvement of purification and sanitation systems and installations’, nearly 13 million euros have been set aside, more than 11% of the total. Of this, 3 million will go to the connection between the wastewater treatment plants of Torre Pacheco and Los Alcázares. In addition, more than 6.5 million euros will be invested in runoff and sediment control.
Sources from the Regional Ministry for the Environment and the Mar Menor inform that an important part of the budget, due to the importance of scientific intervention, is allocated to the ‘Research and monitoring’ of the Mar Menor, with more than 7 million euros. The ‘Recovery of coastal areas’ has almost 8 million euros and for ‘Recovery of the Mar Menor and its biodiversity’ there are also more than 7 million euros.
On the other hand, more than 6.5 million euros will go to ‘Runoff and sediment control’ programmes, while 3 million are for ‘Sustainable and innovative agriculture’. More than 2.2 million will go to ‘Dissemination and environmental education’ and 1.8 million to ‘Soil conservation and restoration’. One of the smallest items under this heading is for ‘Sustainable fisheries’, with 500,000 euros. Among the socio-economic measures approved, the most relevant items correspond to the promotion of training and job creation in the area, with almost 10.5 million euros, which represents more than 31% of this large block (9% of the total of 115,933,351 euros). The regional government has also set aside 4.4 million euros to develop seasonally adjusted tourist and sporting activities and another 2.2 million euros for environmental education and dissemination. An investment of over 9.9 million euros has been earmarked for ‘Improving road and drainage safety’. The Action Plan also includes ‘Housing actions’. Specifically, more than 4 million euros will go to this line of action, while just over 3 million euros will go to ‘Improving competitiveness’.
Finally, more than one million euros will go to the ‘Conservation and promotion of cultural heritage’. According to data from the Ministry itself, the 115,933,351 euros represent an increase of around 3.8% compared to 2023, as the Minister for the Environment, Universities, Research and the Mar Menor, Juan María Vázquez, told the Governing Council yesterday.