Alert over the Countdown to the Closure of the Tajo-Segura Transfer

Farmers in the province of Alicante are on alert ahead of the expected December meeting of the National Water Council, which will approve new operating rules for the Tajo-Segura Transfer to certify the end of the water transfer. The Generalitat Valenciana and the Provincial Council of Alicante have also gathered mayors and irrigators to explain the arguments they will defend at the national meeting.

The Minister of Agriculture, Miguel Barrachina, will defend the Valencian Community's opposition at the National Water Council, through a report prepared by the department's technicians, to ensure that "science replaces the occurrence" of Pedro Sánchez's government, including the increase in ecological flows.

Barrachina has criticized the "political flow" of the Tajo, "six times greater than that of the Júcar," which will be established and will prevent water transfers to the province of Alicante, Murcia, and Almería. All this while the donor basin carries 100 cubic hectometres to the Atlantic Ocean, the same amount that will be cut from the Transfer.

However, "it is a lost battle," acknowledged the President of the Provincial Council, Toni Pérez, as the Government holds a majority in the National Water Council. The only way forward, for now, will be to pursue a judicial battle.

The Minister of Agriculture has acknowledged that the Generalitat is considering the "illegality" of the level 1 flow increase, as it is understood that it is not possible to reduce the flow through a decree and a Council of Ministers agreement. "We are evaluating it," admitted Barrachina.

For now, the only ongoing legal challenge is that of the Central Irrigation Union (Scrats) in the Supreme Court. It is the last hope for irrigators to stop the implementation of the Transfer cuts. Its president, Lucas Jiménez, explained that the irrigators "will continue rowing" against the end of the Tajo-Segura in the face of the environmental, social, and economic "disaster" for the province of Alicante, Murcia, and Almería despite the difficulties: "We are not crazy," he warned.

And he left a message for the socialists: "García-Page is the only socialist who talks about the transfer today, I don't hear any of his colleagues here (in the Levante) saying anything about the Tajo-Segura."