ARCHIVED - Scientists warn that the “green soup” is returning to the Mar Menor

Major demonstration in Cartagena on Wednesday to demand solutions and action

As the city of Cartagena prepares to host a major demonstration on Wednesday evening, when marchers will demand urgent solutions to be implemented to regenerate and protect the marine environment in the Mar Menor behind the slogan “SOS Mar Menor”, the minister for Agriculture and the Environment in the Murcia government has recognized that there is a danger of the “green soup” of 2016 returning to the lagoon in just a few days.

After the torrential gota fría storm in September, which caused widespread flooding, water continues to filter into the Mar Menor due to the water table under the Campo de Cartagena being far higher than it was in 2016, carrying with it nitrates from the crop fields and phosphates. These substances, used in fertilizers by crop farmers, are causing an “algal bloom” in the lagoon which has seen the level of chlorophyll in the water to rise dramatically in recent days, and as a result professor Javier Gilabert of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena warns that the water could soon become uniformly green as it did in a previous episode of eutrophication three years ago.

Some of the emergency measures to halt the deterioration which were mentioned by Sr Gilabert and Sr Luengo at a press conference on Tuesday appear to be extreme, such as pumping “healthy” seawater into the Mar Menor from the Mediterranean, while others, such as extracting water from the aquifer under the Campo de Cartagena, are difficult to implepment to say the least.

Looking for positive news is hard in this context, but at least the experts are not expecting any more episodes of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in the water like the one which caused the death of tens of thousands of fish and crustaceans earlier this month.

For his part, Antonio Luengo stated that he will be taking part in the demonstration and march on Wednesday evening, as he laments the condition of the Mar Menor as much as anyone. 

The march begins in the Alameda de San Antón near the Carthago Nova football stadium (the starting point has been changed due to the large numbers of people expected) at 18.00 before making its way to the Plaza de España and along the Paseo Alfonso XIII to the regional parliament building.

Among the protesters will be those travelling to Cartagena on coaches laid on from Murcia (5), Los Alcázares (5), La Manga (3), San Pedro del Pinatar (2), Los Nietos (2) Santomera (1), La Aljorra and El Albujón (1) and Bahía Bella, Los Urrutias and El Algar (1), and thousands more are expected to join including a former national Minister for the Environment, Cristina Narbona, and the co-founder of the Podemos political party, Juan Carlos Monedero.

Images: ANSE and @MarMenorKO

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