The Community will go to court if the Council of Ministers cuts the Transfer

The members of the Regional Water Advisory Council decided this Wednesday morning to file a contentious-administrative appeal, when it can be done legally, if the Council of Ministers approves by decree the
Tagus Plan that increases the ecological flows and cuts a third of the average transfers to Levante.

This was announced this Wednesday morning by the Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Luengo, at the end of the meeting. He explained that the decision to appeal is unanimous. Likewise, he pointed out that he has “little hope” that the Ministry and the Government of Pedro Sánchez tweak the Plan del Tajo. The forecast of the Ministry is that it is approved before the summer, together with the rest of the plans.

The mayor of Lorca, Diego José Mateos, who is part of the Advisory Council on behalf of the Federation of Municipalities of the Region, expressed his “profound rejection” of said plan, both as mayor and for his position as secretary general of the Socialists Lorca. He pointed out that his city council does not rule out presenting another contentious appeal against the central government.

Mateos called for the unity of all the parties and society in the Region to defend the Transfer. “We must recover unity around the water,” he said. Likewise, he is committed to strengthening alliances with the Valencian Community and Andalusia, which should be led by López Miras. “On that road they will find us and we will always go hand in hand to recover that unity.”

On the possible political wear that the PSOE may suffer if there is finally a cut in the Transfer, the mayor of Lorca indicated that “we do not make calculations of political wear, because if we did not make other decisions. We are not going to put ourselves in profile, whoever governs in Madrid governs. This is a territorial problem, it is not an ideological confrontation.

The Water Advisory Council, which had its last meeting three years ago, has now been convened on the occasion of the Tagus Plan. It is made up of Apoexpa, the Commonwealth of Canals del Taibilla, Mayor Lorca, the employers Croem, Fecoam, UGT, CHS, Asaja, Central Board of Irrigators, Transfer Irrigators Union, Scrats, and engineer Francisco Cabezas. The council, on the other hand, gave the green light to the plan for the control and improvement of the rainwater and sewage networks around the Mar Menor, which provides for 156 actions for 235 million euros.