The mayor of Cartagena describes as “flatly false” that there are spills from the municipal network and asks to “sanction” farmers who do not comply with the Law
The mayor of Cartagena, Noelia Arroyo, flatly rejected this Thursday that there are wastewater discharges into the Mar Menor from municipal networks and charged the Ingenio Foundation for “spreading hoaxes” that, in addition, harm farmers to whom she says defend. “I do not know the interests of that Foundation, but to say that the problem of the Mar Menor comes from sewage is completely false, and propagating this type of lies shows that they lack any scientific basis,” said the councilor, from the Popular Party, in statements to the true.
He thus reacted to the controversy over the demonstrations carried out on Wednesday by the director of that entity, Natalia Corbalán, in a meeting with dozens of farmers in Torre Pacheco. Corbalán boasted that, thanks to this alliance of companies and producers from the primary sector, “the story is changing” about the causes of the lagoon’s degradation. «
“We do not pollute. There is no contamination of sewage that justifies the situation of the Mar Menor, “replied Arroyo. And he added: “In addition, there is a rigorous and daily control with health analyzes from both the Autonomous Community and the City Council that demonstrate this.” “Even so, our obligation is to continue investing in improving sanitation networks to extend guarantees. The issue of the Mar Menor is a very sensitive matter on which we must all work together and not dedicate ourselves, as this Foundation does, to spreading hoaxes, which is also doing a disservice to the farmers of Campo de Cartagena, “added the Cartagena councilor .
Arroyo stressed that the City Council has planned investments for an amount of 10 million euros in sanitation improvements, purification and flood prevention in the Mar Menor basin. And, taking advantage of his participation in a meeting in Cartagena with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, he took the opportunity to publicly demand that the Government of Spain extend the deadline for requesting aid and increase the current item, which is 4 million for Cartagena.
Regarding the collective lawsuit against the Law of the Mar Menor, Arroyo stated: “I don’t know what actions have been seriously proposed. I see a lot, I read a lot and I listen a lot, but what I would ask is that it always be based on scientific foundations, that declarations and demonstrations are not made based on hoaxes, on what I have heard or played by ear. And a disservice is done to agriculture or to another sector that generates well-being, progress and employment in our municipality”.
“Support” for the “transition to sustainable agriculture”
The mayor came to distinguish between the Ingenio Foundation and the agricultural sector as a whole and asked to sanction those who do not comply with the Law. Arroyo stated: “Farmers must stop criminalizing them. They have been stating that they want to be part of the solution and it is essential that they do so and that we will collaborate with a sector that we cannot do without in the Campo de Cartagena region, in a transition towards sustainable agriculture. They are putting everything on their part, through the UPCT Sustainable Agriculture Chair and from the cooperatives, the actions they are developing on their land. Whoever has not done so must logically be detected and sanctioned and taken out of the equation, because there can be no exceptions or pay the just for sinners.
Likewise, Arroyo considered positive the line of aid from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to the sector, although she regretted not being informed of the details. “Welcome, because our farmers need and have always said that they want to be part of the solution and they do not need to be singled out as the sole culprits for the situation in the Mar Menor,” she said.
He also indicated that “other important sectors, such as the tourism sector, must also make this transition and we must help them.” And he argued it like this: “There are many pressures in the Mar Menor and there are many elements that have influenced the current situation and there are many of us who have to intervene to promote its recovery.”
Money to remove the biomass
The mayor also demanded money from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition for the removal of biomass. She recalled that the Autonomous Community pays for these works on the beaches with 300,000 euros and stated: «Biomass must be removed, because it is a structural problem. It is known that the more it is removed, the better for the situation in the Mar Menor. These episodes of hypoxia and eutrophication are avoided”. She also urged the central government to act on the aquifer. “If we all know something, it is that we must act so that the Mar Menor has less pressure from the aquifer and therefore more is invested in pumping and impulsion actions, so that less surface and underground water reaches the Mar Menor.”
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