Date Published: 18/12/2019
ARCHIVED - Outrage among Murcia farmers as the Spanish government denies them water
ARCHIVED ARTICLE 
The government has vetoed another transfer of water in the light of the situation in the Mar Menor
Irrigation farmers in the Region of Murcia expressed outrage on Tuesday after the Ministry for Ecological Transition in the Spanish government refused to allow water to be transferred to the south-east of Spain via the Tajo-Segura canal for it to be used in agriculture, restricting the permitted uses of the latest transfer to industry and urban and household consumption.
Earlier the panel of analysts in charge of deciding on transferred to made to the Segura basin from the headquarters of the Tajo in central Spain had recommended a transfer of 19.6 cubic hectometres during December, two third of it for use in agriculture, but for the second month in a row the Ministry has used its power of veto to deny the crop farmers of the Segura basin “extra” water supplies. The reason offered is that irrigation crop farming continues to contribute heavily to the deterioration in the condition of the Mar Menor, although it is worth pointing out that the Segura basin is far larger than the Campo de Cartagena, the area from which runoff water containing fertilizers and nutrients is held largely responsible for the worsening marine environment in the lagoon.

It goes without saying that the irrigation farmers of Murcia, Almería and Alicante are not pleased, and interpret the decision as further evidence that the intention of the government, and of Teresa Ribera, the Minister for Ecological Transition, is to phase out the Tajo-Segura infrastructure which has been supporting the boom in agriculture in the south-east of Spain for the last 40 years.
Lucas Jiménez, the president of the Scrats irrigation farmers’ association, described the decision as “insolent” and threatened protest marches in the streets in the near future, while the regional government of Murcia described the shift in policy as “intolerable”. President Fernando López Miras is of the opinion that the national government is using the Mar Menor as “an excuse” to cut off the supply from the Tajo-Segura, while Antonio Luengo, the minister in Murcia for Water, Agriculture, Farming, Fishing and the Environment, complains that his counterparts in Madrid are “criminalizing” the agriculture sector – a common complaint voiced by the farmers themselves about politicians of all colours in recent months as unauthorized practices are clamped down on.

Perhaps even stronger were the words of Joaquín Segado of the regional PP party, who described the policy as “inadmissible” and “an unprecedented attack on the whole of the Region of Murcia”.
On the other hand, the Ministry’s justification was that the decision “has been made taking into account the situation in the Mar Menor and the effects of irrigation on the lagoon, and is based on the principles of precaution and non-deterioration which govern environmental management”. As a result, the authorized transfer of 7.5 hm3 of water will be destined solely for urban supply.
At present the amount of water in the reservoirs of Entrepeñas and Buendía, from where it is fed into the Tajo-Segura supply canal, is 469.2 hm3, and unless there is significant rain and snow in the area over the next couple of months it could fall below 400 hm3 before the end of the winter. That figure is an important one as it marks the threshold beneath which no transfers are permitted, at which point the chances of more water being supplied to irrigation farmers will become even more slender.
Click here for an analysis of the inherent water “deficit” in Murcia, the reliance on the Tajo-Segura and how it has come about.
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