The Ministry offers a concert of millions, but the underlying problem is which projects can actually be executed in 2022
There is a dance of hundreds of millions that for now are nowhere to be seen, or perhaps in a residual way. The Ministry for Ecological Transition has been promising money for two years to recover the Mar Menor, in its part, and so far only 11.9 million have been reflected in the State Accounts for environmental restoration of the lagoon in the Budgets carried over for the years 2019 and 2020, and zero in the current year of 2021. For the next year, there is a question mark about the specific projects for the Mar Menor, although the Ministry said yesterday that they have secured funding.
The substance of the matter points in another direction: what specific projects, works and actions for the regeneration of the lagoon are on the table to tender, award or execute next year? Few, I’m afraid. And of the actions that they want to undertake, the corresponding impact studies will have to be carried out, which take time. Not even the department of Teresa Ribera clarifies about the measures to be applied in the Mar Menor, except to reiterate that action must be taken at source, in irrigation, nitrate and the aquifer, before undertaking other things.
-
September 2019
The comprehensive project of the Zero Discharge Plan was presented at a cost of 647 million and 21 actions. The Ministry said that it was responsible for paying 158 million, and the Ministry considered that it was 280 million. In the Budgets of that year there were only 11.9 million for environmental actions. -
July 2020
The CHS releases the northern collector to public information, at a cost of 70 million euros. Three months later, Secretary of State Hugo Morán freezes the work. -
November 2020
The general director of Water, Teodoro Estrela, said that his department will invest 130 million in 3 years, most of it in the Mar Menor. The minister announced that in 2021 20 million would be allocated to prevent floods, within that package of 130. -
November 2020
Hugo Morán announces that they plan to raise 150 million from the EU. -
May 2021
The minister announces that she will allocate 200 million, half with EU funds. -
August 2021
The minister declares in Congress that there will be an initial investment of 317 million for the Mar Menor -
September 2021
Hugo Morán announces performances in the lagoon for 300 million.
Example: for green filters – artificial wetlands to retain nutrients – work is underway to specify the proposals. Then we will have to do the EIS and the projects. The northern collector, valued at 70 million euros, was released to public information fifteen months ago and is now with the DIA. The CHS continues with the process, but the Ministry does not want such a collector (in reality it is the modernization of a network that already exists). Reject ‘gray’ infrastructures.
The same happens with the drainage of the aquifer and the extraction of water by use through wells (measures 5 and 6 of the controversial Zero Discharge Plan, the same one approved by this Ministry). It is the most expensive action (206.7 million euros).
Two versions of the Ministry
To make matters worse, Ribera’s approach is that he does not want to put millions in the recovery of the lagoon until he sees the results of the actions at source, after which he would know what additional measures would be necessary and what others would be dispensable. Or that, if the patient is cured with treatment or if he has to be put in the operating room.
Yesterday the Ministry gave two different versions: on the one hand, it indicated that there is money, and that specific names of actions do not have to appear in the Budgets since that makes budget management very difficult. In other words, there is no specific section of the Mar Menor (but there is one for Portmán and Tentegorra Park, for example).
On the other hand, however, he recalled in a note what the minister said in August in Congress: “There are actions planned between 2021 and 2023 for an amount of 317 million euros from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which will be they channel the State Budgets through different lines of action, “he said. When it comes to the ‘Next Generation’ funds, the strict execution deadlines and the fact that 2021 has already expired, the Ministry will have to run a lot to take out projects and spend that money in two annuities. Let us remember the case of the AVE works, which now have to resort to ‘Next Generation’ funds to carry out the works in three or four years. Did you not have secured financing before?
Those 317 million are to be dedicated to coastal actions and environmental recovery of the coastline (75.8 million); eliminate the entry of nutrients into the lagoon (13.5); defense against floods (142.2); actions in boulevards and mining soils (73 million) and supply of the Taibilla (13 million), the Ministry said yesterday. We return to the same thing, what specific projects are going to be carried out next year, so that this does not remain in another generic recital of millions.
Plans that don’t add up
In the Budgets for next year there are reflected, he says, 40 million for the restoration of mining areas; as well as the Los Urrutias promenade and the connection of the Paseo de Poniente with the Tomás Maestre port, which add up to 1.6 million euros.
Regarding the actions against floods, the CHS informed the mayors of the Mar Menor in July that the first package of works will involve an investment of 80 million, and that the Confederation itself wants to start them as a whole no later than year 2024. Obviously, this does not match what the Ministry says. It is a show of uncoordination. See if they clear up inside your own home.
.