The agricultural organizations show their anger at the Ministry’s decision and describe the protest as a “resounding success”
“There is no alternative but a rectification by the Ministry: without the water from the Tajo-Segura Transfer, the Region of Murcia will die.” With such blunt and direct expressions, numerous farmers and representatives of the main agrarian organizations showed yesterday in Madrid their enormous anger at the decision by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) to cut the Tagus-Segura. No one from the Community’s agri-food sector was missing at the doors of the Miteco building, and no one missed the opportunity to highlight the deep malaise that exists.
The most energetic and harshly censured Minister Teresa Ribera, the main target of criticism, was Lucas Jiménez, president of the Central Union of Irrigators of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct (Scrats). «We come to Madrid to demand peace, specifically that they leave us in peace. Let Ribera take out his political paws on the water issue and end once and for all the policies of a radical and despot minister,” said the highest representative of the irrigators.
Jiménez made it clear on the microphones of LA VERDAD and numerous national media that gathered at the protest that “the agriculture that takes place in the Region of Murcia is the most respectful with the environment, the most sustainable and the one that feeds all of Spain and Europe». As he assured days before the demonstration called in Madrid, the president of Scrats estimated at 15,000 the jobs that would be lost in the event that the decision of the Ministry to cut the Tagus-Segura due to the increase in ecological flows ends up being applied of the Tagus.
“We are the first to be interested in ensuring that this river is well as users of it [en referencia al Tajo]. We want to continue living and working in peace in the Region. The minister said that this is an emotional issue for us, and of course it is. A society that is going to see its environment, its way of life and its future work in danger due to a political decision, it is normal for it to have emotions. If not, we would be automatons. And in Levante we are not automatons, we are people with courage, courage and who want to work, “said Jiménez.
“Without water, we are lost”
With enormous resignation, numerous farmers showed up who traveled half the country so as not to miss the protest. This is the case of Francisco Albadalejo, who left the Campo de Cartagena to sign up for the appointment in the capital. Like everyone, he showed his anger and sadness at the measure adopted by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, which he will never understand. «What they are doing to us does not enter my head, if they take away the water from the Transfer, we are lost. We need that water that they want to steal from us, without it the Region of Murcia will die,” said the farmer.
Another of the highest representatives of a sector that feels “mistreated”, as stated on some of the banners that traveled from the Community to Madrid, is José Miguel Marín, president of COAG. The leader of the Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers of the Region of Murcia described the protest as a “resounding success” due to the “massive response of the people a few days after the holidays.” José Miguel Marín indicated that the image offered in the capital of Spain shows “how the sector and citizens feel, because this is a problem that affects all civil society and reveals the deep concern that exists in the Region and throughout the I raised. All we ask is that common sense prevail,” he added.
«Having an agriculture in the Levant as Spain has and a region that works with water like this would be a source of pride in any country in the world, but this is not the case. It is very sad that they want to demonize this brilliant agriculture,” Marín pointed out at the doors of the Ministry where the demonstration ended with several branches leaning against the main façade as a symbol of protest. «We ask the Government to rectify, not to approve the Tagus Basin Plan as it is planned to do so; they still have time to do it », he concluded.
united relatives
Among the large representation of agricultural workers who met in Madrid, several families stood out. Couples, some even with children, who started the day at 4 in the morning and who compensated for the lack of sleep with the anger they accumulate at the thought that a cut in infrastructure could jeopardize their work and, consequently, their life as they know it so far. This is the case of Antonio Luján, a farmer from the Albujón area, in Cartagena. He was accompanied by his wife and some friends to the capital of Spain to demand that they not take away his day-to-day life: «Without the water from the Transfer you cannot survive and with desalin at those prices, neither. We need them to keep commanding her to be able to live,” he declared.
The ‘performance’ on the scarcity of water in the Levant carried out by the consultancy BIA3. /
One of those who was “happy and satisfied with the development of the protest and to see irrigators and their families all fighting together for justice” was Juan Marín, vice president of Croem and president of the Lorca Irrigation Community. The former president of Proexport acknowledged that he was clear that “the minister was not going to receive us, but I am satisfied with the response and the noise that people have made at the national level.” And it is that there was no contact between anyone from Miteco and the agrarian organizations, as expected in the hours prior to the concentration. But Marín, despite having the sensation of a job well done, took advantage of the opportunity to describe the movement that Teresa Ribera is seeking as “outrage”, and announced that if it ends up being carried out “they will end agriculture in the Region and put the price of the products at a price that is very difficult to pay. «Before all that, persistence. If more have to come to Madrid, we will come », he said.
Among the representatives of the agricultural sector, there were also Miguel Padilla, national president of COAG; Andrés del Campo, his namesake in the National Federation of Irrigation Communities of Spain; the general secretary of Asaja Murcia, Alfonso Gálvez; the president of Proexport, Mariano Zapata, and Marcos Alarcón, general secretary of UPA. The Proexport leader called the option being considered by the central government a “tremendous injustice”. «They want to exchange the resources of the Transfer for desalinated water and they have put it at a price for which it is totally impossible to cultivate. It cannot be produced that way,” Zapata said.
water war
At the same time, Alarcón was convinced that “the demands of the Supreme Court can be met without increasing ecological flows in the way that is intended.” The Secretary General of the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers of Murcia censured that from the Ministry “they want to get the Region into a water war, of territories, communities and between farmers of different autonomies.” He asked for “logic”, something that, according to him, only happens because the Ministry “retakes the document that the Government of Spain itself prepared and presented to the National Water Council, which was approved.” “There is no alternative water, neither in quantity, nor in quality, nor in price to replace that cut,” he concluded.
What is truly growing at the moment, and in an uncontrolled way, is the anger, sadness, anxiety and resignation of an agricultural sector that does not know where the measure of the Ribera department will go and what the future will bring, although it is now they gleam in a dark color.
The opinion of the Council of State, for January 19
The Council of State will rule on January 19 on the royal decree that reviews the hydrological planning of 12 demarcations for the period 2022-2027 and that includes the modification of the ecological flows that affect the Tajo-Segura Transfer, according to EP reports. The autonomous communities of Valencia, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia have submitted allegations to this extensive file, which totals around 5,000 pages. The Government sent its proposal for a royal decree to the Council of State and, as LA VERDAD announced, asked the consultative institution for an opinion through the urgent procedure in order to receive it before January 20. The procedure has fallen to the eighth section of the Council of State, chaired by the permanent adviser Enrique Alonso García. The opinion will be sent to the Government of Spain so that it takes its recommendations into account before the definitive approval of hydrological planning by the Council of Ministers.
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