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PP and Vox revive the law to increase irrigation in Doñana three months before the elections

2023-03-02T23:10:55.090Z


The Andalusian PSOE opposes the initiative and demands an Ecological Transition agreement and the Junta


The Andalusian right moves the same card in Doñana a year later, although PP and Vox assure that it is of a different color.

This Thursday, the same day that the president of the Board, Juan Manuel Moreno, participated in the release of a female Iberian lynx in Doñana, his party has announced that it will register tomorrow with Vox in the Andalusian Parliament another bill to “ the improvement of the management of agricultural areas of the County of Huelva”.

In other words, the right-wing —now without Ciudadanos— reactivates its proposal to regularize more than 1,500 hectares of illegal strawberry crops that right now are depleting the aquifer of the nature reserve and that caused its aquifer to be declared “overexploited” two years ago and half.

The prolonged drought has meant that the park's biodiversity continues to decline despite the fact that in December the rains gave a breather.

It has barely rained in January and February.

Neither the PP nor Vox wanted to specify the text of the initiative this Thursday, but already at the beginning of 2022 they defended and approved a similar proposal to expand between 1,460 and 1,903 hectares of irrigated land next to this biosphere reserve.

The proposal decayed as the regional elections came forward, but it provoked a harsh warning from the European Commission that it would again fine Spain if it allowed Doñana to dry up due to the increase in irrigation.

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno (in a green jacket), this Thursday at the release of a lynx in Doñana.

Julio Munoz (EFE)

The popular ones —with an absolute majority in the autonomous Parliament— assure that this bill will not deplete the aquifer because it is about promising water to farmers, but always superficial.

After registering that of 14 months ago, the cascade of criticism was continuous: the Government warned that it would take it to the Constitutional Court, Brussels threatened a fine, Unesco positioned itself against it and more than a thousand scientists signed a manifesto to oppose the idea. of the political groups.

The proposal that PP and Vox will register comes less than 100 days before the municipal elections.

Both parties fight for the votes in the five towns in the Condado area, where the Socialists govern with an absolute majority in three of them.

The PSOE, which abstained last legislature in the processing of the proposed law, will not stand out again.

This position provoked a harsh rebuke from the vice president and minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, to the Andalusian socialists.

The general secretary of the regional PSOE, Juan Espadas, is clear that this time he will not support a proposal that he believes will generate the same alarm in Brussels.

The Andalusian Government stopped the registration of the initiative last week.

A call from the Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Sanz, to his parliamentary group delayed the initiative to allow time to negotiate with those responsible for Ecological Transition.

The Andalusian Minister for the Environment, Ramón Fernández Pacheco, met on Monday with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, to whom he delivered the proposal.

The central government does not want there to be talk at any time of expanding irrigation in a very sensitive area that is suffering from a water deficit that has a full impact on the Doñana National Park and the aquifer that feeds it.

The Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, when she announced her plan for Doñana in Almonte, Huelva, last November.

PACO BRIDGES

The Ministry of the Environment ensures that the aquifer, which is overexploited due to water theft, will "never" be the solution for red fruit farmers.

They bet on surface water, but these are also planned to carry water to the immense underground well.

According to the Board, there are talks with the European institutions and the central government to reach an agreement, but the PSOE is not so optimistic about this dialogue.

The parliamentary spokesman of the Andalusian PP, Toni Martín, assures that the bill will incorporate the amendments that the PSOE registered in the previous legislature, which opted to have all the affected organizations such as the Doñana Participation Council, where all the actors are involved, including the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation.

The Socialists believe that the organization of irrigation in the area of ​​Doñana should be led by the Andalusian Government, which they urge to present a bill and not hide behind parliamentary groups.

If so, the Executive has to collect a series of mandatory reports, while if it leaves the new regulation in the hands of the groups, control is more lax.

Apart from the opposition in Madrid, Brussels and Paris, a year ago the right-wing proposal divided the farmers in the area bordering the park, between the legal ones (with irrigation rights) and the illegal ones, in addition to mobilizing the large food distributors, who warned the Andalusian Government that their measure was the worst publicity for the Doñana brand.

The impact of this second measure remains to be seen and whether environmentalists reject it head-on like a year ago.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-03-02

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