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The Government approves the ecological flow for the Tagus and insists on desalination to alleviate the reduction in transfer

2023-01-24T21:20:55.536Z


The Council of Ministers carries out the hydrological planning of the 12 river basins that cross more than one community


The Government has approved this Tuesday the hydrological planning of the 12 river basins that are within its competence to extend through several autonomous communities.

The basin plans, which must be updated periodically, are the road map that will govern the different uses of water that are given between now and 2027. And the main one —with a consumption of around 80% of the resources— It is irrigated agriculture.

Of all these plans, the most sensitive is the one that affects the Tagus River.

For the first time, the Ministry for Ecological Transition has set an ecological flow for this river, as required by five Supreme Court rulings, European regulations and the Water Law for 22 years.

But establishing that flow —something like a minimum of water that must circulate— has consequences beyond the basin, in Alicante,

Murcia and Almeria.

Because this flow will reduce the amount of water that is transferred from the headwaters of the Tagus to the Mediterranean and used for domestic consumption, but mainly to irrigate crops.

The Government, despite the pressures against it from the affected communities and with the support of Castilla-La Mancha, has finally approved the fixing of that flow.

The most important control point is Aranjuez, where a minimum will be established, albeit progressively.

By 2023 it should be 7 cubic meters per second, in 2026 it will rise to 8 cubic meters and in 2027, to 8.6.

Less transferred water

By setting that minimum amount of water that the river can carry, there will be consequences, because less water will foreseeably be transferred to the Levant.

Everything will depend on how much it rains to know how big the cut will be, but in a context of climate crisis in which the available resources are already being reduced and will be further reduced in the future, the outlook is not favorable for crops in Almería , Murcia and Alicante.

At least, if your intention is that the transfer continues to be the cornerstone of your sector.

Government sources estimate that the transfer could be reduced by a range of 70 to 110 cubic hectometres per year in the worst-case scenario (the average annual transfer is around 320 cubic hectometres).

But, to make up for this drop, the ministry is committed to desalinated water.

The Government affirms that investments are currently underway to increase the desalination capacity and achieve in 2026 those 110 cubic hectometres that would be lost with the fixing of the ecological flow.

But the problem would no longer be one of quantity, but of costs, because the farmers of the affected communities maintain that desalinated water is much more expensive (between three and four times) than that which reaches them from the Tagus through the aqueduct.

Sources from the Ministry for Ecological Transition maintain that the desalination plan that they have in place - whose cost is around 600 million - also contemplates that all the facilities that produce water will have associated photovoltaic plants to reduce the cost of desalination, since It is the energy that is required that makes the final price more expensive.

The Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has assured this Tuesday that they plan to also establish a maximum price of 34 euros per cubic hectometre to make desalinated water cheaper.

Ribera, who spoke at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, recalled that the commitment is not to have an "exorbitant price", but rather "assumable".

Aware of the political storm that can be generated in Valencia, the vice president wanted to mention her party colleague Ximo Puig, president of the Generalitat, and has defended a policy of "constant dialogue" with the affected communities.

But Ribera has emphasized that "the rulings should not be questioned", in reference to the Supreme Court's pronouncements on the need to set ecological flows.

“We must anticipate a problematic scenario”, she has insisted, also referring to the reduction in water availability, also in the Tagus, due to global warming.

The vice president recalled that since 1980 the water available in the basins of Spain has already been reduced by 12%.

And the scenarios that arise are "increasingly tougher."

Also,

final touches

The Council of State reported favorably last week on the new hydrological planning that was approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.

Also, the transfer of the Tagus, although including some recommendations on the future establishment of ecological flows and the coordination of the measures that are taken in this basin and that may affect other areas, such as the Levante.

Ecological Transition sources assure that after these recommendations of the Council of State the texts have been retouched, but only in matters of form and not substance.

One of the last battles fought by the Mediterranean communities was for the inclusion of a clause that would allow the final fixing of the flows to be open and conditional on the preparation of a report on the situation of the river in 2025. However, the same sources assure that the final approved text does not contemplate a "conditional application" of the flows, which are those that were already foreseen when the new planning began to be processed.

The ministry defends that only the Ebro and Tagus basins were missing because they have these ecological flows, which seek to improve the poor quality of the waters of the country's rivers.

Improve the state of rivers

Starting from this 12% reduction in the water available in Spanish rivers since 1980 and from what the models of evolution of the climate crisis predict, the basin plans approved this Tuesday contemplate for the first time "a change in the trend in the use of resources”, explains Ecological Transition through a statement.

"Specifically, the allocations for the different uses are reduced, going from the 28,000 cubic hectometres per year that the previous planning indicated to 26,800."

In addition, defends the ministry, "in order to diversify the sources of obtaining the resource, desalination is given a greater role, so that supply is guaranteed and environmental demands and requirements are balanced."

In addition to guaranteeing the uses of water, the objective of basin plans is also to improve the state of rivers and other bodies, which is not good.

And one of the reasons is the deficient purification that is carried out in Spain of urban water, which has motivated the country to pay the largest fine in its history to the European Union.

The total budget contemplated in the approved basin plans is 22,844 million euros (of which 46.7% are state financing and the rest from autonomous communities and local entities).

The largest item —6,643.67 million— is for purification and sanitation infrastructures.

Among other things, it is intended to prevent Spain from being penalized again for the community files that it still has open for dumping the waters without sufficiently purifying the rivers.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-01-24

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