Rogelio Llanes and Carlos Mazón consider it “inalienable”; and the Consell continues with the open channels with the Ministry to try to reach an agreement
The conference ‘Agriculture and Water in Levante, present and future’, organized by the Central Irrigation Union of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct and LA VERDAD, have placed the importance of the agricultural sector on the social and political agenda for two days, promoting confrontation of ideas and proposals through debate. The consensus between the main parties does not seem to reach Murcian politics, where the positions on the future of the aqueduct between socialists and popular are increasingly distant.
Nothing to do with the Generalitat Valenciana and the Diputación de Alicante, whose representatives of the PSOE and PP, respectively, agreed in their speeches this Saturday in Orihuela that the Transfer “is not touched” and that they will not “go back before the cuts”, at the same time that they reached out to dialogue and reach a national pact.
The opening of the second session of the Scrats and LA VERDAD conference was given by the Scrats vice-president, Javier Berenguer, who stated that the Transfer is now more necessary than ever. In his brief speech, Berenguer expressed the importance of the water-agriculture binomial, “an indissoluble couple, which generates and consolidates thousands of jobs in the Spanish Levant.” Specifically, up to 107,000 jobs, thus becoming a national economic engine.
death of agriculture
Regarding the measures adopted by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition regarding the Tagus-Segura Transfer, he regretted that they are not being supported by technical criteria, and that they are only accelerating the death of Levantine agriculture.
The socialist mayor of the host municipality, Carolina Gracia, assured that agriculture is decisive because “Orihuela is an orchard”. In her speech, she supported the demand of the Scrats vice-president, adding that “we have overcome the yes to the Transfer; we want all the investment and technological capacity to be evaluated in order to advance in other viable and attainable sources». For the councilor, the Transfer is a priority infrastructure and she appealed to science, research and cooperation between administrations for this just purpose. «We want -she underlined- that the transfers are made in fair conditions for all the territories. If two cubic hectometers can arrive here, instead of one, they are welcome. But as long as it does not harm other areas. That’s a fair share.”
Rejection of the ecological flow
In line with these positions, the regional secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development and director of the Valencian Agency for Agricultural Development and Guarantee, Rogelio Llanes, rejected the increase in the ecological flow proposed by the Tagus Basin Plan and reiterated, at the same time, who are willing to talk. «The defense of the Tajo-Segura Transfer has been and will continue to be a fundamental issue for the Consell». The Government of Ximo Puig maintains open channels with the Ministry to try to reach an agreement and prevent the increase in the ecological flow by approximately 40% from being approved.
Llanes detailed the actions of the Generalitat in support of the sector. «We have launched the Valencian irrigation strategy 2020-2040, which will collect investments of 1,200 million euros. Our goal is to have quality water at the same price to maintain food security.”
100,000 families affected
Different political sign, but similar speech, the president of the Provincial Council of Alicante and the PP of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, remarked that «the Tajo-Segura Transfer is a strength, a source of progress». Mazón, in charge of closing the conference. He recalled that in the last four years there have been “twenty political cuts” to the Tajo-Segura Transfer, based on decisions that are not technical.
In this regard, he criticized that “who assures us that the Transfer is necessary, only gives us a drop of water, endangering the support of 100,000 families.” In this sense, he said that it has gone from a can of water to a bucket, and later to “a droplet”. However, Mazón was willing to agree, not to surrender, while he stressed that “we want the peace of water.” He considered that it is normal for peninsular rivers to flow towards Portugal with large volumes of water, and yet “we throw things at our heads” when a small flow is diverted to Levante.
He valued Levantine agriculture and its producers. “No one can deny us that we have been an example in efficient water management, thanks to the constant effort and investment of our producers.”
The second conference organized by Scrats and LA VERDAD took place at the Tudemir Palace, with a large influx of people who attended the presentations by professionals and agricultural experts who took over from the politicians. The sessions were also very well received via streaming, through laverdad.es and the newspaper’s social networks, where every minute of the forum could be consulted.
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