Anse and the Pact denounce the contribution of sand on the south coast, “to cover the mud” before the visit of the EU delegation
They had already heard of the black mud in the lagoon, but when they saw it on the beaches of Los Urrutias they couldn’t help but be surprised. “It is very sad. I’m glad I came. The level of contamination is dramatic, ”said the president of the European delegation, Tatjana Zdanoka, after checking the decomposed silt that covers the shores. MEPs took photos next to the ooze. If it was the moment that councilor Antonio Luengo wanted to avoid, as the representatives of the defense groups of the Mar Menor who followed the European delegation bus complained, he did not succeed at all. The representatives of the European Parliament took several tests of the mud on their mobiles, and a real sample to analyze.
“The level of contamination is dramatic,” commented yesterday the president of the European delegation, the Latvian Tatjana Zdanoka, who bought a magnet with the map of the lagoon
Both the Association of Naturalists of the Southeast and the Pact for the Mar Menor complained about the supposed attempt to ‘disappoint’ by the counselor, who was guiding the European delegation from a car that was driving in front of the bus, with the presumed intention of avoiding the most conflictive scenarios of the environmental crisis.
Luengo: “It’s maintenance”
The intervention of the Anse representative, Pedro García, directed them first to the Marchamalo salt flats to “show them the degree of abandonment of an exploitation for which we have requested, without response, authorization to recover it.” The environmentalist spokesman also directed them towards the shore of Los Urrutias, where he had to dig a hole to find the mud, since “in recent days they have been busy extracting mud and throwing layers of sand to cover it,” he denounced. The MEPs took out their mobiles to portray the pasty and blackish substance as the most obvious symptom of the lagoon disease.
Counselor Antonio Luengo denied the ‘mud cover’ operation and assured that “these beach maintenance tasks are carried out throughout the year.”
With attention divided by the war in Ukraine, the delegation verified how, in a year of drought, the Albujón stream maintains a continuous flow with the category of a river.
On the causes, the EU envoys were able to hear arguments for all tastes. For the Vox MEP, Jorge Buxadé, the boulevard has water because of the sewage treatment plants that dump their surpluses with phosphates. For the councilor Antonio Luengo, it is due to the “high level of water in the aquifer, which before the DANA of 2019 was produced because the Government of Spain prohibited farmers from extracting water, that is why it is essential to lower the level, as defined by the Actions 5 and 6 of the ‘Zero Discharge’ Plan». He assured that they have already inspected 11,000 hectares of Campo de Cartagena, which represent 11% of the useful agricultural area, and the Community has opened 215 files for possible non-compliance.
20 years later
More than 20 years have passed since Anse presented the first complaint to the EU and almost six since the trip to Brussels, together with members of the Pact for the Mar Menor, Ecologists in Action and the fishermen. The MEPs come to do more than admire the Murcian sun in February, since with the report of the delegation, they will be able to propose measures and also sanctions. “If the competent administration in agriculture and the environment, such as the Autonomous Community, does not exercise its powers, the EU will have to monitor and ask for explanations,” warned Socialist MEP Marcos Ros. The representative of United We Can in the European Parliament, Sira Rego, highlighted that “the level of nitrates triples what is established by European legislation” and assured that “we take a sample of sludge to analyze.” Soraya Rodríguez, from the Citizens Group in the European Chamber, recalled that “it is not enough to put a figure of protection.” “It is a silent catastrophe of a unique ecosystem in Europe, and protection figures have not been able to prevent environmental devastation, so we must act more firmly.”
With the torrent of data and opinions -some of them opposing- received, President Zdanoka took care to individually ask various representatives involved in the defense of the ecosystem about “the viable solutions for the Mar Menor”. She was interested in the problems of the residents of Bahía Bella, who are suffering from the first wave of flooding next to the boulevard. And, in Lo Pagán, she bought a magnet for the fridge with the map of the damaged lagoon.