The Valencian Generalitat and the Government of Spain have engaged in a war of figures over water contributions to the L’Albufera natural park and, more specifically, to the lake. The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, denounced last Thursday that the Executive has failed to comply with the basin plan and has not sent the 20 cubic hectometers promised as extraordinary ecological flow, but only two, to the lake. The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), dependent on the Ministry of Ecological Transition, insists that it has derived 50 cubic hectometers of contributions to the natural park. The Valencian Government has announced a prior appeal to demand water and if it does not work they will resort to administrative litigation.
The decrease in the water levels of the lagoon in the months of November and December of last year set off alarms among public administrations and environmental organizations, which demand a permanent control table for the lake’s water in the face of the reduction in its levels. due to the lack of rain, the heat and the continued west wind. Last February, the Valencian president and the Minister of Ecological Transition agreed on an emergency plan for the lake and the development of a calendar to carry it out. But that plan, according to the CHJ, is still in process.
With this background, the conflict over more water resources for the lake flared up again last Thursday when President Mazón accused Minister Teresa Ribera, head of the PSOE list for the European elections on June 9, of breaking her word regarding the arrival of water to the Albufera de Valencia. Mazón explained that on May 15 the deadline was met for water to be contributed to the lake that did not arrive “after being promised,” she said.
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, responded to Mazón’s criticism and argued that the water contributions to the Albufera Natural Park of Valencia double those planned in the planning during the current hydrological year, with more than 50 hectometers cubic meters sent so far from the Júcar and Turia river systems. “There is no criterion for reducing or containing the sending of resources, quite the opposite,” he stressed, and insisted that there is “no blocking situation” on the part of the Government.
The Minister of the Environment of the Generalitat, Salomé Pradas, of the PP, recalled that the Júcar Hydrological Plan, approved in 2023 by the Government, contemplates, as a restriction on the systems, 14.5 hectometers of savings from the Acequia Real del Júcar coming from the Júcar System, another 10 hectometers from this same system and 10 more hectometers from the Turia system. The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, who is trying to put together a UNESCO candidacy for the lagoon to be declared a Biosphere Reserve, joined the criticism.
The contributions to the park from the concessions that come from the town of Sueca have been in force for more than 15 years but do not contribute to renewing the lake’s water (most of it ends up in the sea), he noted, adding that, for this reason, modified the plan with the 20 hectometers of extraordinary contributions “that the Government now denies,” denounced the counselor. Pradas urged Ribera not to “deliberately confuse the ordinary contribution to the natural park with what the lagoon must receive by law and which in this case has only been two hectometers and not with the quality we want.” “Therefore, 18 hectometers are missing,” she said.
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The controversy intensified at the end of the week when President Mazón blamed the Government for lying several times about water contributions and the Transition Ministry blamed the Generalitat for spreading “hoaxes.”
The war of figures and the exchange of accusations continues this Monday and the president of the CHJ, Miguel Polo, has appeared to explain the water contributions although, as he acknowledged, it is “difficult to know how much water reaches the lake” because the CHJ leaves the flows at the beginning of the natural park, and these are distributed through the network of irrigation ditches because there is no direct channel through which to divert them to the lake.
Political battle, according to the CHJ
The CHJ has detailed the balance of water sent to the Albufera above the concessions, calculated based on adding the water derived from the rivers, the water from regenerated resources to the ditches and discounting the water used for irrigation. According to the confederation’s figures, they total 50.7 cubic hectometres: 14.54 through the Favara irrigation canal, 3.5 from the Oro irrigation canal, six from the Acequia Real del Júcar and 26.17 from the Sueca irrigation canal. The hydrological plan establishes 20 hectometers of shipping, 10 from the Júcar system and another ten from the Turia.
Polo has criticized the creation of a “political battle” close to the European elections around the contributions that should be settled in the administrative sphere, while urging the Generalitat to build a direct conduit from the rivers to the lake since Once the water reaches the irrigation ditches, it becomes a regional responsibility. “We have put the water into the irrigators’ intakes, from then on we don’t know,” he stressed.
Regarding the judicial actions that the Generalitat and the Valencia City Council announce, the president of the CHJ has pointed out “that this controversy already arose last year” which is why he advises “rigor and a lot of dialogue” between Administrations. “It seems that it is easier to generate controversy than to sit down and talk,” said the president, who concluded that if the Generalitat does not agree with the interpretation “that we make of the basin plan, they should appeal.” Pradas has replied that the Generalitat has always shown a “willingness to dialogue.”
Last week, Compromís demanded that the mayor of Valencia go to court to demand water from the Albufera. “It is very good to claim that the lake needs the water collected by the Xúquer hydrological plan. L’Albufera has the right to 34.5 cubic hectometres. 14.5, coming from the modernization of the sectors of the royal canal of Xúquer, 10 cubic hectometers from the Turia system and 10 cubic hectometers from the Xúquer system. If the Confederation is not complying with that water, what the City Council should do as the owner of the lagoon is go to court.” they concluded.
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