Ribera and Moreno settle the Doñana crisis and share the costs of a hypothetical transfer of water to Andalusia by boat

The waters have returned to normal after a week of tensions, after the Third Vice President of the Government, Teresa Ribera, ordered the suspension of the Doñana plan signed with the Junta of Andalusia upon verifying that the Andalusian Government had included in a megadecree a amnesty for farmers who had illegally planted crops on forest land.

And in a non-metaphorical way, because this Thursday, the Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Andalusian president have signed an agreement to try to alleviate the effects of the drought in the community and have taken the opportunity to settle disagreements about the national park, after that yesterday the Andalusian administration gave a new wording to the points of the decree that had caused the disagreement in accordance with the technical guidelines of Miteco.

“As soon as the legal doubts are dispelled and no ambiguity is generated, and the doubts are cleared up in the official bulletin, everything will be ready to relaunch the joint project,” said Ribera after the meeting, making it clear that to resume the plan it must first be published. the modification of the decree.

Moreno also wanted to emphasize the validity of the agreement — “not only is it in force, but it has enormous force,” said the Andalusian president.

“This is our third meeting in five months, proof of the mutual trust that we want to generate towards citizens who are experiencing very difficult situations such as the primary and tourism sectors,” added the PP leader.

A trust that refers not only to Doñana, but to water policies in Andalusia, where six million inhabitants suffer some type of restriction as a result of the drought.

And this afternoon's meeting was specifically planned to address the collaboration between both administrations to guarantee emergency water supply for this summer and also to carry out longer-term structural works.

Among the emergency contributions to which the minister has committed is the investment in digitalization for the water cycle and avoiding leaks in the municipalities through the ministry's specific program, the contribution with five cubic hectometers in the north of Almería with instrumentation of state desalination infrastructure, expanding the production capacity of the Atabal desalination plant in Malaga and collaboration in the eventual transportation of water by ship.

In this sense, Ribera has specified that, unlike the case of Barcelona with the Valencian port of Sagunto, in this case there are no state desalination plants from which this water can be taken.

Other private ones have been identified - the minister did not want to specify because no agreement has yet been closed - that are not operating at full capacity right now and where the tankers could be brought from.

One boat a day for four months

The Government has committed to assuming the cost of desalinated water under the same conditions as in the case of Sagunto and the Board would look for a formula for transport to the ports of Carboneras (Almería), Málaga and Algeciras (Cádiz).

Neither of the two leaders has specified the economic terms.

Moreno has specified that every day he would dock a ship whose monthly cost is estimated at five million euros.

If implemented, it is always considered by the Board as a measure of extreme necessity, the journeys would be made over four months starting in the summer.

In addition to these almost essential works, the technical teams of both administrations have agreed to hold weekly meetings to monitor the progress of these actions and also schedule the next steps.

The rains of recent weeks have alleviated the state of the reservoirs in this community, but more than half a million Andalusians suffer restrictions on water consumption.

Throughout the province of Malaga, including the capital, and in the Cádiz region of Campo de Gibraltar, consumption has been reduced to a maximum of 160 liters per day per person.

The 80,000 residents of Los Pedroches and El Guadiato, in the northern mountains of Córdoba, have not been able to drink tap water since last April because the water from the La Colada reservoir from which they are supplied is contaminated, after it dried up in March 2023 that of Sierra Boyera.

The representatives of the United for Water Platform, who demand from the administrations a permanent solution that allows them to stop depending on jugs and tankers, have gathered at the doors of the San Telmo Palace to draw attention to their intolerable abandonment.

“Agree, we cannot return to the 19th century!” one of its members implored the minister before starting the meeting.

The Government undertook the works to join both reservoirs and now it is up to the Provincial Council of Córdoba to carry out the works to condition the water treatment station, work that the Board declared an emergency in November 2023, but whose execution will take months.

“We can't wait that long,” that neighbor warned.

Ribera has indicated that it has been agreed to provide support to the Provincial Council and has indicated that it is expected that the deadlines will be shortened to guarantee drinking water as soon as possible.

One of the demands that the Andalusian president brought to the meeting, and which at the time was endorsed in the autonomous Parliament by all political parties except Por Andalucía, was to ask the Government for support so that the EU recognizes the water uniqueness of the community, which would allow this territory to have mechanisms to provide itself with the necessary resources to adapt to the effects of climate change.

This issue was not discussed at the meeting, although Ribera did point out that “the importance of guaranteeing water security for citizens” was addressed, that is, that they can count on water in a context in which climate models point to longer drought episodes.

Moreno, for his part, recalled that he is going to insist that in the next European Commission there be a Commissioner for Water and that work be done from the south to make the countries of Central Europe see the socioeconomic importance that water resources have for the convergence.

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