ARCHIVED - The collapse of an unsustainable model of agriculture: Minister for Ecological Transition on the state of the Mar Menor

The Murcia government promises far-reaching legislation to protect the lagoon by the end of the year

The seriousness of the condition of the water in the Mar Menor is now clear to see after tens of thousands of dead and dying fish and crustaceans washed ashore at the northern end of the lagoon at the weekend, and as Teresa Ribera, the Minister for Ecological Transition, prepares to visit the area on Wednesday the regional government of Murcia has outlined plans to hurry through emergency legislation to save the ecosystem of the lagoon.

Sra Ribera, speaking in Oviedo in northern Spain on Monday, referred to the crisis in the Mar Menor as an example of the “collapse of an unsustainable model” of agriculture, and announced that she is contemplating speeding up the “zero runoff” plans which have been outlined by the Ministry. This would involve forcibly expropriating farmland and introducing changes into irrigation farming methods, and the Minister’s statements have been seen by some as an indication of a lack of faith in the regional government of Murcia being able to deal with the situation.

Rather than forming more committees and merely monitoring the water quality in the Mar Menor, Teresa Ribera advocates “rolling up our sleeves and getting to work”, a course of action which has been conspicuous by its absence even in the three years since the eutrophication of the lagoon left the water cloudy and greenish in colour. Sra Ribera directly blames the problems in the Mar Menor not on the gota fría storm in September (although this was the immediate catalyst for the sudden deterioration in conditions) but on “agricultural practices which have no future”.

This seems to suggest that she is willing to take the kind of drastic action which ecologists and environmentalists have been demanding for many years, and for this reason many hope that her visit to Murcia on Wednesday may provide grounds for optimism regarding the future.

In the meantime, the outlook remains bleak, with many experts warning that in the Mar Menor the worst may yet be to come. How much of the marine fauna has survived is not known but while species such as sea bass and other fish will eventually return from the Mediterranean if the environment is restored, the giant fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) is one which will not. This is because a parasite has all but exterminated the species from the western Mediterranean and, until a month ago at least, the more saline water of the Mar Menor was practically the only have in which it survived in Europe.

A small fan mussel reserve was therefore created in the lagoon, but it may prove necessary to transfer any surviving specimens to a specially created aquarium if conditions are found to be too hostile for them to remain in the Mar Menor.

At the same time, perhaps spurred into action by the words of Teresa Ribera, the Murcia regional government made a commitment on Monday to rushing through a law containing integral measures to protect the lagoon before the end of the year, while at the same time requesting urgent measures from the Ministry. Fernando López Miras, the president of the Murcia government, describes the situation as “dramatic and urgent” and ascribes it “maximum priority” while promising that the new law will cover “all of the sectors which have anything to do with the Mar Menor”.

Among the measures Sr López Miras mentioned while attempting to reassure the public that “all is not lost” are that Capitanía Marítima should eliminate all illegal mooring of boats in the Mar Menor, that the CHS should begin work on pumping water out of the Rambla del Albujón, that the Costas department of the national government should begin work immediately on removing mud from the sea bed and that the Ministry should investigate the effects of recovering depth in the lagoon – all of them actions to be carried out by others rather than by the Murcia government, in other words, and none of them involving the changes in agricultural practices mentioned by Teresa Ribera.

Predictably, Sr López Miras’ plan has come in for heavy criticism, a reaction which is inevitable in the world of politics at any time but doubly so in the run-up to the general election which is to be held on 10^th November. Both the PSOE and Vox parties have highlighted the attempt to rectify matters in the Mar Menor in 2 months when, they say, far too little has been done in the last 20 years, and that if efforts had been made to enforce existing legislation the current crisis would not have occurred.

In this sense, of course, it is fair for the blame to be shared by the government and other authorities, including the Town Halls and the CHS – a valid point made by Joaquín Segado on behalf of the government in the regional parliament - but unfortunately the unedifying political squabbles and gainsaying do little to remedy the situation. Each of the organizations involved in the public debate, including governments, scientists, crop farmers, the CHS and Town Halls, agrees in theory that it is of the utmost importance that they should all work together to save the Mar Menor, and then on too many occasions goes on to criticize and blame the others in the same breath.

What seems to be needed is someone to cut through the “blame game” and adopt a “new broom” approach, sweeping clean and attacking the problem at its sources, be they in the sector of agriculture, in mining, in tourism or in urban development. If that someone is Teresa Ribera, and people of all political leanings will be hoping that this is the case, her visit to Murcia on Wednesday just may come in time for the deterioration of the Mar Menor to be halted and reversed, but the events of the weekend make it clear that action must be taken as soon as possible.

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