ARCHIVED - Murcian president says 30 million litres of water a day continues to flow into the Mar Menor

Murcia regional government prohibits the water discharges but it is difficult to see how this can be enforced when so much water continues to exacerbate the problem

On Monday the head of the PP national party paid a visit to the Region of Murcia, supporting the call of the regional government for the declaration of the Mar Menor as a “catastrophe zone”.

The national prime minister, Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE, has said that his cabinet will debate the request for the declaration of the Mar Menor as an area seriously affected by a natural catastrophe this summer, although with the cause of the continued problems of the Mar Menor recognised as being the continuous discharge of nitrate-laden waters into the Mar Menor, directly derived from agricultural activity, whether the catastrophe can be classified as “natural” or is more obviously “man made” will be much in dispute.

The rhetoric from the PP politicians in the region has now moved to describing the catastrophe facing the Mar Menor as being a “natural disaster”, the PP hoping to gain the intervention of both the national government and the EU, pushing for funds to be made available to those directly affected by the situation. How that will be defined is difficult to pinpoint as there are so many businesses directly and indirectly affected as a result of the current scenario, including of course, the agricultural businesses which illegally extracted and desalinated subterranean water with which to irrigate their crops for many years, dumping concentrated salt and nitrate laden waste back into the aquifer, and saturating the ground to water their crops so that the nitrates leached down into the aquifer and ramblas, then on into the Mar Menor, before being forced to stop by recent legislation, and who are now calling for compensation for their loss of earnings. In addition of course, many businesses such as restaurants, who have complied with the law and worked hard for decades to build up their businesses and now face the possibility of another devastating autumn tourist season due to the problems, through no fault of their own, also face significant loss, as do many businesses directly or indirectly working in the area.

Is every kiosk going to be compensated for their loss of earnings, along with every gift shop, restaurant and hotel, to say nothing of the taxi drivers, and bakeries who will see less trade?

However, as written many times before, the issue is complex and environmentalists and researchers are vocally of the opinion that short-term solutions to stop the process now underway are not easily achievable.

Key amongst the immediate steps being called for is the cessation of water discharges into the Mar Menor and on Friday evening the regional president said that “we will not tolerate a single drop more of water carrying nutrients”, describing the runoff as “the worst enemy of the Mar Menor”,and announcing the "prohibition" of further run-offs.

Yet according to the president himself on his Twitter account on Monday, when visiting the rambla with national PP leader Pablo Casado: "the rambla del Albujón continues to dump 30 million litres of water and 5,000 kilos of nutrients into the Mar Menor every day", so in the absence of King Canute, it is hard to see how he can possibly make good on the "prohibition" he announced on Friday evening.

Today he called on the national government “to allow the regional government to act if the national government will not do so itself, ” the direct reference being to the CHS, the body in charge of waterways and aquifers, which the regional government is blaming directly for the continued water run-off.

La rambla del Albujón sigue vertiendo cada día al Mar Menor 30 millones de litros de agua dulce y 5.000 kilos de nutrientes. Hoy, el presidente @pablocasado_ ha estado allí.

Pedimos al Gobierno central que nos deje actuar si ellos no van a hacerlo.

No podemos esperar más. pic.twitter.com/5DJQ84874X

— Fernando López Miras (@LopezMirasF) August 23, 2021

Pablo Casasdo said the solution to the problems of the Mar Menor is "to prevent fresh waters loaded with nitrates from being dumped into the Mar Menor that do not come from direct discharges from the agricultural sector, but often flow through aquifers that they reached many years ago", so is thereby denying that the continued use of water by the agricultural sector is responsible for the current flow of water.

And meanwhile, the wind is changing and today the first dead fish were filmed on the beaches in the north of the lagoon.

Images: Fernando López Miras Twitter