The Plenary Session of the City Council of Totana agreed in its last plenary session in December, unanimously, to express the institutional rejection of the decision of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition not to transfer water for irrigation in December and to support the claims promoted by the Central Union of Irrigators of the Tajo-Segura Transfer, the Irrigation Communities and agricultural and irrigation organizations of the Region of Murcia.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition (Miteco) authorized a transfer of 7.5 cubic hectometers through the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct for December, which will be used exclusively for urban supply.
This decision has already been embodied in a ministerial order that will soon be published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
In this way, irrigation remains at zero, since, in addition to the application of the rules of exploitation, in the transfer decision "the fact that one of the greatest pressures to the Mar Menor is pollution has been addressed diffuse from irrigation in the Campo de Cartagena, "as reported by the Ministry.
According to the Ministry, the management of the Segura Hydrographic Basin must be assessed as a whole, taking into account the different situations and circumstances that occur at all times, taking into account the environmental status of the Mar Menor.
The Ministry has argued that the transfer decision has been taken taking into account the current state of the lagoon and the effects that irrigation produces on it, based on the precautionary and non-deterioration principles that govern the management of the Environment ;
and that the resolution has been adopted based on the operating rules of the Tajo-Segura transfer, which stipulate that at level 3 the Ministry may authorize a transfer in a discretionary but motivated manner.
The closure of the Tajo-Segura Transfer, not transferring water for irrigation in December despite having the favorable report of the Central Commission for the Operation of the Aqueduct, entails a pernicious and very serious situation;
and it translates into a significant damage to the situation of agriculture and the economic and social development of Totana.
From the City Council of Totana it has been wanted to make a common institutional front before the demands of the farmers of Totana and the whole of the Region of Murcia, who do not understand what they have done to always be aware of the decisions of the ministers of the day;
So it is time to defend them again since all Spanish territories have the right to enjoy a common good such as water.
From the Totanero Consistory, this ministerial decision is considered to be a mistake, which is also very negative and detrimental to the interests of the farmers of the Region of Murcia and to the Murcian countryside in general.
