As water quality deteriorates, Murcia government admits past mismanagement of the Mar Menor

Concerns are rising over a deterioration of in water quality in the lagoon as the autumn rains bring the threat of further agricultural chemicals flowing into the Mar Menor

Water quality in the Mar Menor, Europe's largest saltwater lagoon which covers an area of 170 square kilometres, has been a constant topic in the media since the summer of 2016, when both the colour and clarity of the water was affected by algal bloom.

This week the first of the autumn rains flowed down into the saltwaters, sparking a flurry of activity on the social media of the protest groups campaigning for a more visible response to the issue, showing rainwaters and waste water flowing into the lagoon, and urging a response from regional and national governments following a summer in which the water quality has once again started to become a cause for concern.

On Wednesday Ana Martínez Vidal, the official spokesperson for the regional government of Murcia, addressed the issue of water quality in the Mar Menor stating that the recent increase in turbidity and decrease in visibility are temporary and will be reverted.

At the same time, Sra Martínez Vidal departed from what has been the standard government line since the scare in 2016, when the water of the Mar Menor turned a greenish colour as chlorophyll levels rose alarmingly, and recognized that the management of the environment in the lagoon has not been good enough in recent decades. Specifically, she stated that “the new coalition government” (which has been in office for a month) “recognizes that environmental matters have not been handled adequately in the last few decades”.

In many ways her statement comes at an appropriate time, as over the last few weeks there have been increasing concerns over water quality in the lagoon expressed both on social media and in the regional Spanish language printed media. The latest set of official data show that the average transparency depth of water in the Mar Menor stands at 2.55 metres (as opposed to 4.64 metres a year ago), the turbidity index is at 2.53 (0.92 at the same point last year) and there are 2.73 micrograms of chlorophyll per litre of water (0.87 last year). Neither is it possible to attribute these variations to the water being warmer than in the late summer of 2018, as the average temperature is currently 28.97 degrees as opposed to 30.19ºC last year, although Sra Martínez Vidal hinted that the warm water is one of the contributing factors.

The fact is, though, that it is now three years since the “green soup” scare of 2016 and very little has been done to progress towards the aim of zero runoff into the Mar Menor from the agricultural land of the Campo de Cartagena. In consequence, the likelihood is that the rain which fell in the Costa Cálida on Tuesday will result in more nitrates and fertilizers making their way into the lagoon, while other causes for concern include the possible runoff of heavy metals from the old mines of Sierra Minera and sewage finding its way untreated into the lagoon ( this week the Asociación ProAgua has posted footage on its social media site allegedly showing untreated waste flowing towards the Mar Menor along with excess water released into the rambla del Albujón by the CHS, Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura in order to free up space in the purification unit of Torre Pacheco ahead of the heavy rains on Tuesday.)

But still the regional and national governments appear to be waiting for each other to take action. Sra Martínez Vidal stated on Wednesday that she is demanding that the national Ministry for Ecological Transition implement its Zero Runoff plan, while Teresa Ribero, the Minister concerned, tweeted on August 24^th that “the majority of the protection and recovery plans are the responsibility of the regional government”.

It is perhaps interesting to recall that as long ago as 1987 the regional newspapers reported that if the measures which were supposedly being taken at the time to protect the lagoon the Mar Menor was to be completely “decontaminated” by 1992. At some point in the intervening 32 years it appears that the relevant authorities became distracted from their aim.

The images accompanying this article (apart from the one of Ana Martínez) were all tweeted or retweeted by @MarMenorKO, and all are dated between 20th and 28th August.

Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Region of Murcia and the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/