The Alicante Countryside Erupts Against Sánchez's Government Over Solar Plant Location for Torrevieja Desalination Plant

The Young Farmers Association (Asaja) of Alicante has erupted against Pedro Sánchez's Government. The Alicante countryside is voicing strong opposition to the Central Government's proposed locations for the new solar plant that will supply energy to the Torrevieja desalination plant.

The president of the agrarian association, José Vicente Andreu, has warned that 'these locations proposed by the Ministry of Ecological Transition encroach on protected estates' and suggests using dry land that 'is indeed available in the chosen area, all that is needed is a better analysis of the terrain.'

Asaja Alicante insists that 'far from solving the problem, the Government is moving it elsewhere, occupying land with high productive capacity.' These estates, as detailed by the Alicante association, are declared of national interest by Law 52/1980, of October 16, on the Regulation of the Economic Regime of the Tajo-Segura aqueduct exploitation and, therefore, 'it is land that must be protected from this type of installation that precisely undermines the purpose of such a declaration,' they assert.

The farmers consider that this is 'yet another example of a government aiming to harm the primary sector as a result of the Ministry's obsession with ending the country's most productive agriculture, the Levante irrigation.'

Asaja insists that this situation 'is one blunder after another and is part of a long list that Alicante farmers have been enduring, such as the application of ideological flows, used as a battering ram to reduce the water transferred to the Segura basin, benefiting no one in return.'

The agrarian association criticizes the Government and reaffirms the 'lack of will' to carry out the necessary infrastructure, such as the pipelines to bring desalinated water to all irrigators, 'proposing a project that is not feasible from an environmental point of view.'

The president of Asaja Alicante disapproves of this project, whose execution would constitute 'an environmental crime, something inadmissible, and only conceivable as an excuse not to connect the Torrevieja desalination plant with the transfer channels, thereby putting irrigators in greater difficulty.'