Professor Antonio Fanlo warns that cutting the resources to which irrigators are entitled may imply compensation
There is no article in the European Union’s Water Framework Directive that explicitly speaks of establishing ecological flows of rivers, and there are no studies that support that it improves the quality of water masses, so its implementation would be “a decision politics”. These are three of the great ideas highlighted this Saturday by the speakers at the technical panel ‘Planning and the challenge of water resources’, held in Orihuela as part of the second day of the forum on Agriculture and Water and its future, organized by Scrats and THE TRUTH.
Antonio Fanlo, professor of Administrative Law and consultant in Water Law, well versed in the Tajo-Segura Transfer, was one of the members of the table and expressed it as clearly as water: “We have self-imposed the ecological flow and with serious consequences, because if it is misapplied it leads to restrictions”. That is what will happen if the Tagus Basin Plan is finally approved. Fanlo went further by warning that farmers have acquired rights (in the form of administrative titles) for the use of these resources, and that if they are cut by political decision, their holders have the right to be compensated by the State.
The phrases
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Anthony Fanlo | Water Law Consultant
“Until now between the PP and the PSOE there has only been immense disloyalty in the face of a state problem such as water” -
Luis Garrote | Expert in Hydraulic Engineering
“Farmers have always shown their ability to adapt to adversity, that’s why I’m optimistic” -
Jose Carlos Diez | Professor of economics
“Spanish politicians and irrigation communities must create a ‘lobby’ in Europe to seek solutions to the shortage”
The expert also said that he was “sure” that the ecological flows are being “misapplied”, which is why the level of the reservoirs drops (“no more water should be released than enters”). Fanlo blamed the two major political parties (PP and PSOE) for not having been able to fight in Europe for “Spain’s water uniqueness.” Instead, he said, “there has only been immense disloyalty in the face of a state problem.”
Moderated by Francisco Cabezas, director of the Euro-Mediterranean Water Institute and associate professor at the University of Murcia, Luis Garrote, professor of Hydraulic Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, also participated in the table, who stressed that he had not seen any study that demonstrated the impact that the increase in circulating flows in the Tagus would have on improving water quality. “That relationship is not clear.”
Garrote stressed that in Levante there is a “strict balance” between the water that is available and that which is used, so “it is neither possible nor desirable to deviate from this”; and he lamented that “the planner chooses the criterion that seems most appropriate” to change the rules of the game. He stressed that “there are decisions that have not been sufficiently justified” with the proposed ecological flows in the Alto Tajo. Finally, he sent out a message of hope: “In the face of adversity, farmers have always shown their ability to adapt, their resilience.”
José Carlos Díez, Professor of Economics at the University of Alcalá, stressed that water is “a very complex problem without a single vision”, rejecting that it was “highly politicized”. He appealed to the PP and PSOE to fight together in Europe by creating a ‘lobby’, as the irrigation communities should also do, so that there they would know the problems of scarcity and its socio-economic repercussions. ‘The definition of water stress should be incorporated’ into the EU vocabulary.
Díez, co-founder of the Water Economy Forum, urged to take advantage of Next Generation European funds to carry out investments in hydraulic matters, for their maintenance and improvement, because it is money that does not create indebtedness in the State. “Here there is not a euro in the box to do it,” he emphasized.
Antonio Bernal: «The farmer is the one who poses the challenges to R&D&i companies»
Antonio Bernal Morata, president of the Association of Water Technology Companies of the Region of Murcia (Atecarm), was in charge of putting on the table the relationship between his sector and the agricultural and agri-food sector. In his speech, Bernal conveyed the concern in both sectors about the uncertainty about the future of water “and therefore of agriculture.”
In his speech before a dedicated audience, he highlighted how the activities of technology companies not only go hand in hand with farmers, but even the needs that they raise go ahead. «The farmer, due to his desire to get the most out of every drop of water, is the one who has set the challenges and projects for R&D&i companies. That is why we are perplexed at the persecution that has been raised against them, “said the businessman.
[Asimismo, el presidente de Atecarm destacó la importancia del sector de las empresas que se sitúan en torno a la agricultura , por lo que les mostró «todo nuestro apoyo en la defensa de la agricultura».
Detrás de la asociación hay veintitrés empresas de referencia en el sector del agua, que han decidido agruparse y constituir una nueva patronal que articule, cohesione, profesionalice y salvaguarde los intereses de quienes desarrollan su actividad en este campo. Los primeros pasos para su constitución los dieron a principios de este año.
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