Irrigators Urge Mazón to Expand Desalination Efforts

The future of the Transfer and water security has three critical fronts for the irrigation of the Segura basin: the blockage of the interconnection network to expand desalination across the basin; the new rules of the aqueduct; and the restrictions on well water extraction. Urgent measures are needed to prevent the impending chaos, according to irrigators, the water disorder that could occur from 2027. In the first two cases, there are ongoing efforts and discussions to try to unblock the connection and mitigate restrictions on overexploited aquifers.

Regarding the new rules of the aqueduct, former Environment Minister and PSOE president, Cristina Narbona, left the real scope and legislative articulation up in the air, noting that not everything was decided, perhaps to try to calm protests and the strong discontent generated in the Region of Murcia, Alicante, and Almería. She stated that the Ministry leaves a range of options, which will depend on the situation over the next two years, during which ecological flows in the Upper Tagus will rise to 8 and 8.5 m3/s. This is when the effects of the Transfer cut will be truly felt. "There is no magic ball to say it," she commented.

Narbona believes that the proposed reform, which raises the non-transferable red line and tightens the rest of the levels, must pass through the Congress of Deputies. This point is still unclear: whether a royal decree will suffice, or if it must be done through a royal decree-law. Meanwhile, there are irrigation communities attempting to purchase water concessions in the Upper Tagus, although it would be in dribs and drabs, without solving the problem.

The interconnection of the Torrevieja desalination plant with the Post-Transfer channels, one of the major hydraulic works projected in the Segura basin, has opened another chapter with a clash between Narbona and the Valencian Generalitat, as the former minister accused the neighbouring community's PP of obstructing the works.

The regional secretary for the Environment, Raúl Mérida, replied that one of the projected reservoirs affects the Natura 2000 Network in the Sierra de Escalona. "We are not stopping it, the law is," he noted, indicating that they are considering an alternative on a public mountain of the Generalitat, where a reservoir "of the same dimensions and similar cost" is allowed.

That's where they are, following the intervention of the Transfer Irrigators' Union, whose president Lucas Jiménez and vice-president Roque Bru, have held three meetings with members of the Consell. On April 5th, at an event marking the 46th anniversary of the Transfer, Lucas Jiménez told the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, that the interconnection was necessary and urgent, and that a solution had to be found.

The blockade has its main starting point in the unfavourable reports from two departments of the Generalitat that deemed the project unfeasible for environmental reasons, while also requiring the CHS – which released the project for public information in 2022 – to propose other alternatives, change the route, and apply corrective measures.

The governments of López Miras and Carlos Mazón are not in favour of this channeling because they believe it aims to close the Transfer for irrigation. It seems that there is currently a possibility to advance with the project, although there is a second part: irrigators have doubts about the financial capacity of the CHS and Miteco to undertake the works.

So far, the main objections and controversies for the development of desalination stem from the Valencian Community's PP. In 2005, Francisco Camps' government put many obstacles to the construction of the Torrevieja desalination plant, the largest in Europe, at a time when these facilities were called 'the nuclear plants of the sea' by some popular leaders, stung by the repeal of the Ebro transfer. Now, environmental objections are raised about the interconnection. Added to this is the rejection of the mayor of Torrevieja, the popular Eduardo Dolón, to the new 100 hm3 desalination plant projected in his municipality.

Regarding aquifers, several sources indicate that the Ministry and the CHS, including mediators, could soften measures to prevent a massive closure of wells from 2027. Work is underway at various levels, through a flexible interpretation of the Water Directive and the Public Hydraulic Domain Regulation, precisely in a basin like the Segura where a wide range of exceptions can be accommodated. In parallel, new wells are being opened, something that is happening. That's where some efforts are directed.

Action is urgent, otherwise, the combination of reducing 200 hm3 from wells, along with another 100 from the Transfer, and with desalination halfway, would be catastrophic and explosive from a socio-economic point of view. It's not enough to say that new desalination plants want to be accelerated.