The Ministry gives an oxygen balloon to the aqueduct and will not increase the ecological flows from the year 2026 if the water masses of the upper area meet the environmental requirements
The Tajo-Segura Transfer will receive an oxygen balloon. The Ministry for Ecological Transition will not apply the increase in ecological flows in the Alto Tajo from the year 2026 if it is verified that the environmental objectives are met on that date, with which the increase in flow would remain at 7 cubic meters per second, one more than now, but it would not reach 8.6, as the irrigators feared. This is how it appears in the documentation sent by the Ministry to the members of the National Water Council who meet on the 29th.
Specifically, the draft of the royal decree states that “before proceeding for the years 2026 and 2027 to the application of the minimum ecological flows established in the Hydrological Plan of the Spanish part of the Tagus Hydrographic Demarcation in the masses of surface water between the Bolarque and Valdecañas reservoirs, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge will evaluate, taking into account the results of the Special Monitoring Program, if the applied measures meet the environmental objectives set for those bodies of water, in which case It will not be necessary to apply the steps provided for in the Hydrological Plan as of January 1, 2026 for the minimum flows in force since the approval of the plan.
The aforementioned draft details that “this evaluation will be submitted to a report from the National Water Council and, in the terms that are appropriate based on the general interest, it will be incorporated into the Hydrological Plan of the Spanish part of the Tagus Hydrographic Demarcation by updating it before the term that is foreseen and in accordance with what is established in the third additional provision of this royal decree.
Luca Jiménez: “Before we were dead”
The president of the Central Union of Irrigators (Scrats), Lucas Jiménez, declares that he will study the draft of the draft royal decree in detail, although a priori he does not reject the Ministry’s proposal. “We were dead, and at the moment we see that there may be a way out,” he told LA VERDAD.
The National Water Council will approve on the 29th, in a marathon session, all the basin plans pending from the third planning cycle, including the Tagus, which establishes a staggered increase in ecological flows in the upper area. This proposal is maintained, but its full application will be subject to the new ministerial provision.
Cut of 32 hectometres per year
The proposal for the demarcation of the Tagus foresees raising the minimum flows in the area between Aranjuez and the headwaters reservoirs (Entrepeñas and Buendía), where the transfer is born. Now it is 6 cubic meters per second, which will go to 7 until the end of 2025; the following year it will rise to 8 cubic meters, and in 2027 it will reach 8.65 cubic meters, when the next planning cycle ends. In the next three years, the rise will be 1 m3/s, which will subtract 32 hm3 from the transfer each year. There is a variation by quarters.
If the increase in flows remains at 7 cubic meters per second, the reduction for the Transfer would be 32 hectometres per year, and not the more than 80 that would be subtracted with an ecological flow of 8.6 cubic meters.
The Ministry has introduced a “necessary coordination mechanism” of the hydrological plans related to the transfer. In this sense, the decree proposes an additional provision that reads as follows:
1. The person in charge of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, within a period of two months from the entry into force of this royal decree, will approve by order the ‘Special program for monitoring the status of water bodies and the sustainability of the uses in the area of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct’ as well as the associated program of measures. The objective of the ‘Special Monitoring Programme’ is to carry out detailed monitoring of the state of the water masses and the achievement of their environmental objectives, as well as to analyze the impact of the ecological flows established in the hydrological plan of the Spanish part of the demarcation River Basin on the receiving basins of the Tajo-Segura transfer, taking into account the effect of the measures included in the planning of these basins for their mitigation.
2. The content of the ‘Special Monitoring Program’ will include, among other aspects, the monitoring of circulating flows through the Tagus axis between Bolarque and Azután; the evolution of the ecological and chemical state of the surface water masses of the section between both reservoirs; the diversions through the Tajo-Segura aqueduct towards the receiving basins; monitoring of water use and the results of inspection and control programs in receiving basins; the evolution of the investment plan for the modernization of irrigation systems at the headwaters of the Tagus, in the sanitation and purification of Madrid, in the expansion of desalination and construction of photovoltaic plants and in the improvement of connectivity between these facilities and consumption areas in the receiving basins; other aspects related to the previous ones that are appropriate.
3. Before proceeding for the years 2026 and 2027 to the application of the minimum ecological flows established in the hydrological plan of the Spanish part of the Tagus river basin in the surface water masses between the Bolarque and Azután reservoirs, the The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge will evaluate, taking into account the results of the ‘Special Monitoring Programme’, whether the applied measures meet the environmental objectives set for these bodies of water, in which case it will not be necessary to apply the steps foreseen in the hydrological plan as of January 1, 2026 for the minimum flows in force since the approval of the plan. This evaluation will be submitted to a report from the National Water Council and, in the terms that are appropriate based on the general interest, it will be incorporated into the Hydrological Plan of the Spanish part of the Tagus river basin by updating it before the expected period. and in accordance with what is established in the third additional provision of this royal decree.
4. The ecological flow regimes in the Tagus axis will be applied respecting the maximum admissible discharges from the Bolarque dam to the Tagus River, established in article 4.1 of Royal Decree 773/2014, of September 12, by which Approve various regulatory standards for the transfer through the Tagus-Segura aqueduct. Said maximum unloading flows may be modified by the Government by royal decree to guarantee its coherence with the ecological flows necessary for the Tagus River in accordance with the results of the ‘Special Monitoring Programme’ provided for in this provision.
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