ARCHIVED - Murcia president identifies the Mar Menor as the top priority for 2020

Differences of opinion in the Murcia coalition government delay the implementation of the new protection law

Fernando López Miras, the president of the regional government of Murcia, spoke on Thursday about the tasks and challenges which lie ahead in 2020 and stressed the importance of protecting and regenerating the marine environment of the Mar Menor as the “absolute” top priority.

This, he said, will be reflected in the budget for the year and for “as long as it takes” for the recovery and protection of the lagoon to be completed, adding that although the regional Cabinet has approved a new law to protect it the hard work still has to be done. The law still has to be applied and, he added, support is needed from the new national government of Spain, but the president expressed a determination that “we will achieve results and we will do whatever is necessary for them to be rapid and positive”.

Whatever the failings of successive governments in Murcia in the past, it seems that Sr López is determined that the lessons of 2019, when the deterioration in conditions in the Mar Menor was accelerated drastically by the runoff of floodwater from the Campo de Cartagena after the gota fría storm of September, will be learnt. By the end of the year his government had already approved the legislation to establish a band of 500 metres around the lagoon in which the use of fertilizers is to be outlawed, making irrigation farming all but impossible, and to place a ban of at least 5 years on any new construction activity being undertaken around the Mar Menor.

However, while all political parties agree that action must be taken immediately to prevent any further alteration of water quality and to allow the lagoon to recover, inevitably there is disagreement over exactly what action is needed, and the outcome of last year’s regional election has made it more difficult for Sr López Miras to act decisively. At that election the PP party which he leads won only 16 of the 45 seats in the regional parliament – one fewer than the PSOE – and in order to remain in office had to form a coalition government with Ciudadanos.

This has led to a problem in hurrying through the new legislation, as although on 26^th December the Ciudadanos representatives in the regional Cabinet gave their approval to the measures outlined in relation to the Mar Menor they have since modified their opinion. They now support the view that the “green belt” around the lagoon should be widened, and propose that the draft legislation be debated in parliament and subjected to possible modification rather than made law as it stands.

This in turn means that the law to protect the lagoon will not come into force within the next couple of days, as had been Sr López Miras’ intention, but will be delayed by the debate and modification process.

Of course, it is impossible to design a package of measures which will be perfectly adapted to the wishes of all political parties, sectors of the economy, environmental groups, biologists and other interested parties. But the positive side of this latest delay is that if it is short, and if it produces a set of measures to protect the Mar Menor which are effective and which are supported by as many political groups as possible, then once implemented the legislation has a better chance of being supported and enforced in the future.

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