Date Published: 29/10/2019
ARCHIVED - Cartagena judge alleged to have failed to protect the Mar Menor
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
No action taken after 17 businesses were placed under investigation for irregular land alterations in the Campo de Cartagena
With water quality in the Mar Menor having deteriorated drastically over the last few months, particularly since the gota fría storm in September, to the point where there are fears that the whole ecosystem could be collapsing to the point of no return, it is reported in regional newspaper La Verdad that a demand for measures to be taken to minimize the effects of future flooding in times of heavy rain has not been dealt with for over two years by a judge in the courts of Cartagena.
After the disastrous flooding this September the public prosecution announced an investigation into the actions of public administrative bodies and landowners in the Campo de Cartagena, and as long ago as October 2016 a similar investigation resulted in 17 companies in the area being placed under investigation. However, hopes that intensive agriculture may be halted as a result in the area of Islas Menores, Mar de Cristal, Playa Honda and Los Nietos, where alterations to the natural lie of the land by agriculturalists are held largely responsible for numerous floods between 2011 and 2015, have so far been thwarted, as no action has been taken.
In July 2017 Judge María Pascual ruled that there was no justification for sealing water runoff channels on the grounds that other factors contributing to the accumulation of harmful substances and floodwater along the shore of the Mar Menor had not been taken into account, and an appeal lodged by local neighbours’ associations has still not even been forwarded on to the provincial court in Murcia, according to La Verdad.
Neither has the office of Judge Pascual sent to the higher courts three appeals lodged privately in March of this year, and while the Spanish justice system is notoriously slow in reaching decisions this seems an unfortunate situation given the obvious need for measures to protect the Mar Menor in the immediate future.
Coincidentally, the platform group representing those affected by heavy metal pollution in the foothills of the Sierra Minera and the Campo de Cartagena report that the court concerned is the same one which declared the case of alleged contamination in local schools in La Unión closed, and there are concerns within the group that the same may occur with another case regarding contamination in the infants’ and primary school of San Ginés de la Jara.
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