ARCHIVED - Plans for 5-year ban on new construction around the Mar Menor

More details emerge of the Murcia government plans to protect the lagoon

As the regional government of Murcia continues to draw up its proposed legislation to regenerate and protect the marine environment of the Mar Menor more details are emerging in the regional press, and La Verdad report that one of the measures to be included is a five-year “moratorium” on any new building projects in and around the lagoon.

This comes after the College of Architects in Murcia recommended such a move last week, with the proposal defined as an “exclusion zone” which will be in force for a minimum of five years, with further development to be limited in some areas and completely prohibited in others, including La Manga.

In addition, last week La Verdad reported that the plans of the government include the establishment of a 500-metre-wide fringe around the Mar Menor within which it will be illegal to use fertilizers and manure, making the continuation of irrigation farming close to the coast practically impossible. The effect of this would be to reduce the amount of nutrients making their way into the lagoon in runoff water, and with the same aim in mind it will be made mandatory for any irrigation farming found to be unauthorized by the CHS water infrastructures administration body will be dismantled, the land returning either to non-irrigation agriculture or to none at all.

No subsidies are to be provided to companies found guilty of such infringements, and on top of these measures another proposal is that five per cent of all irrigated agricultural land should be devoted to systems which retain nutrients rather than allowing them to make their way into the sea.

Essentially, what the government is attempting to do is to create a “green belt” around the Mar Menor which will serve as a filter to remove substances which have a negative effect on the lagoon when they run off into the water in times of heavy rain, such as the gota fría storms which struck the Campo de Cartagena in September and again earlier this month. Within this green belt, the exact limits of which are yet to be defined, restrictions are to be placed on further construction and on the kinds of agriculture permitted, with the building ban affecting any projects for which full approval has not been given before the date on which the new legislation comes into force.

However, two key questions remain to be clarified: one concerns when the law will come into operation, and the other how it is to be enforced, this last one being of particular importance given the frequency with which cases have come to light of already existing laws being contravened and the offences going unpunished for years. La Verdad reports that a series of fines ranging from 5,000 to 500,000 euros are being specified, and as the drastic deterioration of the lagoon in recent months shows it is vital that the new law be enforced as soon as possible.

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