The Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation will veto the macrourbanization next to Doñana and warns that the soil is floodable

The report that the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) will issue in the coming weeks on the tourist macro-urbanization that is to be built in Trebujena (Cádiz), next to the marshes of the Guadalquivir and in front of the Doñana natural park, will be negative, as confirmed by sources of the agency to this newspaper. The CHG is the one who has the last word to give the green light to this project that plans to raise on 2,000 hectares of land in floodplain a golf course, several hotel complexes and 300 luxury homes, after the Junta de Andalucía issued a favorable Strategic Environmental Declaration on April 12, at the expense, as recognized by its spokesman and Minister of Sustainability and Environment, Ramón Fernández Pacheco, of the final approval of the entity that manages the Guadalquivir basin, dependent on the central government.

The technical report to be issued by the CHG must rule on the risk of flooding and the availability of water resources. It is on this second point that all the bulk of the opposition of the organism is based, since, according to the sources consulted, "the authorization to build on land of maritime-terrestrial public domain corresponds to the Junta de Andalucía".

The report presented by the Trebujena City Council on the water supply of the complex indicates that the water would come from the Guadalete-Barbate basin, a basin over which the CHG is not competent. However, the document also indicates that two treatment plants will be built for urbanization and irrigation that would be installed in the demarcation of the Guadalquivir and indicates that water from some channels and rainwater from that river will be used. It is in these two circumstances that the CHG will deny authorization because "water concessions cannot be granted and it is not planned." The project foresees a total consumption of 850,000 cubic meters of water – slightly higher than what the 7,000 residents of Trebujena consume, according to estimates by Ecologists in Action.

On the flooding of the 2.3 million square meters, the sources of the CHG are visibly upset with the attitude of the Board. "He knows, because the irrigation maps are at his disposal, that this area is floodplains, if he was in such a hurry to grant the concession, he could have consulted them because they are public," they point out. The body that regulates the Guadalquivir basin recalls that the confederations are responsible for making flood risk maps, but that the competence over the floodability of the terrestrial public domain, which is the case in which the tourist macrocomplex of Trebujena would be found, corresponds to the Board.

"The CHG will inform the City Council that the location of the urbanization and the golf course are clearly in an area of risk of flooding and in an area of preferential flow, but it is the only thing it can do," says the interlocutor consulted. It is the Andalusian Government that, he insists, "is responsible for transferring to the promoter the indications so that, if it deems it appropriate, the necessary measures are carried out to reduce the floodability".

'Absurd decision'

This morning, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, reiterated that she did not believe that the macroproject would be built because it was projected on floodplains. "I do not understand how it is possible that the Junta de Andalucía has taken such an absurd decision and, obviously, the CHG will let you know," he said. From the Andalusian Government it is insisted that he has not authorized anything "because he has no competences" and that he has limited himself to "issuing the strategic environmental statement", as Fernández Pacheco has maintained, who already yesterday, returned to transfer all responsibility to the CHG, ensuring that the five reports that depended on his department were positive, but that they had claimed the final one to the Confederation on three occasions, without obtaining a response. "We could have waited or acted," he said after the Governing Council on Tuesday, insisting that if the CHG report was negative, his authorization lapsed.

It is not the first time that the Junta de Andalucía points to the CHG as ultimately responsible for decisions or measures that it promotes. First it has been with the law of extension of irrigation of Doñana, which modifies the urban classification of agricultural land, granting water rights to farmers, which the CHG has already said that it will not be able to attend because the water from the transfer of the Tinto, Odiel and Piedra is already compromised.

The latest controversy has been on account of the pilgrimage of El Rocío. In full drought and with the Guadalmar River without a drop of water, the Ministry of the Presidency asked the confederation to unpack water to fill the ford of Quema, a farm in the province of Seville through which several brotherhoods pass and in which pilgrims are usually baptized, so that the animals could drink. From the CHG it was recalled that the water would only be de-impounded if the farmers, who are its recipients, requested it and that it would never be done exclusively to fill the Burn. Finally, these have asked that the water be released in June, so the ford will be empty, a circumstance that has not bothered the brotherhoods at all, disgusted that El Rocío has been introduced into the water war that the Board maintains with the central government.

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