The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, together with the president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community, Pilar de la Oliva, during the visit to the remodeling works of the Palace of Justice in Valencia.Rober Solsona (Europa Press)
The new hydrological planning of the Tagus has only been in force for five days and the Valencian Government has announced that it will ask the Supreme Court, in the appeal that it is preparing, for the precautionary suspension of ecological flows and, therefore, the cut of the Tagus-Segura transfer, "until the substance of the matter is addressed."
This was announced this Thursday by the regional president, Ximo Puig, after visiting the works of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
The decree that reviews the hydrological planning of several basins, including that of the Tagus, introduces new rules that will reduce the volume of water that can be transferred to the Segura basin, by setting minimum ecological flows in the source river.
"An evaluation must be made of the investments and the ecological situation of the river," claimed Puig,
which demands that "water forever" be guaranteed to the Mediterranean area.
The Valencian Government plans to approve the appeal to the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court in its plenary session tomorrow, Friday, which is held in Orihuela (Alicante).
This lawsuit will include the request for the precautionary suspension of the rule, say sources from the Generalitat.
The royal decree published on Saturday in the BOE establishes that the ecological flow of the Tagus (the minimum volume of water that must always be maintained to preserve it from an environmental point of view) will increase progressively between 2023 and 2027, which in practice implies reducing the amount of water transferred to Alicante, Murcia or Almería.
The Tagus basin plan indicates that as it passes through Aranjuez (Madrid) it will rise from six to seven cubic meters per second from January 1, 2023, to eight from 2026 and to 8.65 in 2027.
More information
Keys to the Tagus-Segura transfer.
Why is it said that the water war returns?
The Generalitat understands that the decree already in force does not guarantee that the increase in ecological flows will be carried out based on the analysis of the water masses and the state of the investments announced by the Government to improve their quality.
According to the Valencian Executive, the ninth additional provision of the decree does not comply with "what seems reasonable", the president has said;
that is to say, that the evaluation of the water masses is decisive when deciding whether or not to increase the ecological flow.
Other autonomous governments such as Andalusia and Murcia also announced that they will appeal the government decree, which Castilla-La Mancha applauded.
The decree of the new hydrological plans has been contested from the beginning by those affected in the Segura basin, which has received water from the Tagus for more than 40 years.
The Valencian Generalitat attempted an agreement with the Ministry for Ecological Transition so that the ecological flows of the Tagus would not be immovable beyond 2025 and could be reviewed based on the environmental status of the middle Tagus basin, especially after the investments that plans to start the government.
But the Executive of Pedro Sánchez finally decided, in accordance with various Supreme Court rulings and with the EU's water management policies, to leave the ecological flows as they are.
And there the divergences with three autonomous communities were unleashed.
The Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia presented allegations before the Council of State against the writing of the Ministry of Teresa Ribera.
The definitive formula published in the BOE left more open the possibility of reviewing the flows of the Tagus in the future, the Valencian Government (coalition of PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem) was not satisfied.
The Executive of Ximo Puig announced that, although it would not be an amendment to the entire decree, it will appeal "those issues that are harmful to the interests of the irrigators,
Asaja, the main agrarian union in the affected area, predicts the loss of thousands of workers and a 10% drop in production on the banks of the Segura due to the reduction in flow from the Tagus.