The Third Vice President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Riberahas defended the need to cut the water resources of the Tagus-Segura transfer to comply with five judgments of the Supreme Court that forced the establishment of an ecological flow for the Tagus River, but has ensured that from here to 2027 sInvestments will be undertaken to guarantee an additional 120 cubic hectometres of water for Almería, Murcia and Alicante.
These statements collected by Europa Press come after the confrontation between the Government and the Generalitat over the cut in the transfer became even more bitter last week. The head of the Council, Ximo Puig, warned that he was not going to allow it while Minister Ribera insisted on maintaining the ecological flow.
Ribera has highlighted on Antena 3 that it is necessary in Spain to anticipate solutions to the problems with water derived from a significant decrease in the availability of water resources and he sees it as “absurd” to think that every time hydrological plans have to be approved, “whoever governs” produces that “tension” that is more emotional than rational.
Ribera has insisted on the need to find solutions to guarantee the supply of drinking water, but also the necessary manage the agriculture“a good part of the economy”, efficiently, intelligently and so that there is always a resource available.
“You have to work with the irrigators so that the price they pay for water is reasonable”
Thus, he explained that in this hydrological planning “for the first time” work is being done on the hypothesis of extreme scenarios of inundation or drought prolonged and for this it has ensured that the Government is going to allocate “the largest amount of resources ever allocated”, of 8,000 million euros, to hydraulic infrastructures, such as desalination, reuse or the connection between desalination plants.
Of this amount, 1,100 million are investments in infrastructure in Murcia; 540 million for investments in Alicante and more than 44 million in Almería so that over time, the effect of these investments allows “guaranteeing” access to water.
Five sentences against the State
Ribera explained that the reduction in the transferable flow in the Tagus Segura transfer occurred because five Supreme Court rulings were pending, condemning the State because there was no ecological flow for the Tagus river, which is shared with Portugal, and when the calculation of the flow that corresponded was “very difficult to absorb from the first day”.
Thus, he specified that “fruit of effort” among irrigatorsthe affected autonomous communities and the Government found an ecological flow that will begin to rise from 2025 to achieve the objective of ecological flow in 2027. In this way, it hopes to meet the infrastructure deadlines so that when the ecological flow begins to rise significantly, more than 120 additional hectometres can be provided for Alicante, Murcia and Almería.
“It is in our hands that this is definitely a solution for all the territories”, opined the vice-president, who added that we must also work with irrigators so that the price they pay for water is reasonable and does not distort their capacity to use water in agriculture.
For this reason, he is confident that a “very good part” of the price of desalinated water will be covered through the General State Budget, since in those 8,000 million euros of investment, will be invested in renewable energy so that the energy cost of desalinating water is reduced “drastically”.
In any case, he has stated that as long as these investments are fully operational, the Government will continue to enable a transfer of resources via the General State Budget to guarantee a stable desalinated water price.