The Supreme Court accelerates the end of the Tajo-Segura Transfer

The Supreme Court has driven another nail into the coffin of the Tajo-Segura Transfer, the latest target of Pedro Sánchez's government. The High Court opposes the gradual increase of ecological flows in the Tajo section affecting the Transfer, according to the basin plan, and advances the levels to 2025 instead of 2027. With this ruling, it will become increasingly difficult to have sufficient flow in the donor basin for transfers to the province of Alicante.

For this year, the minimum water quantity is set at 7 m3/second, while in 2026 it would be 8 m3/s and in 2027, 8.6 m3/s. This progressive increase was justified by the need for a certain period to implement alternative resources (desalination) in the Segura basin to cover water cuts through the aqueduct.

The ruling comes at the worst possible time for the Tajo-Segura. Despite the province of Alicante awaiting 60 cubic hectometres in three transfers for the next quarter (the maximum allowed due to rains filling the headwater reservoirs), the new exploitation rules dictated by the Ministry of Ecological Transition are currently on the table.

This regulation restricts transferable flows by increasing reservoir levels and simultaneously reducing quantities. A 40% water cut for irrigation will cost 61 million euros and 1,700 jobs in the province of Alicante, according to the Water Commission of the Provincial Council's estimate.

In this struggle, the irrigation unions and authorities were dealt a blow by the Supreme Court. The judges of the Fifth Section of the Administrative Litigation Chamber have declared null a part of the basin plan (the same one unilaterally broken by the Government with the Generalitat of Ximo Puig) that would nullify the progressive increase of the minimum flows that should circulate through the Tajo section affecting the volumes sent by the Transfer to the Segura.

The Supreme Court partially sides with the Platform in defence of the Tajo and Alberche rivers and the Environmental Action Group, who challenged the current Tajo hydrological plan. The judges believe that the staggering of ecological flows cannot be carried out in water bodies considered protected habitats by the Natura 2000 Network, as it would violate the Water Framework Directive. In this case, the ruling would affect the 13 water bodies established between the Bolarque reservoir in Guadalajara and Valdecañas, between Toledo and Cáceres.

Now, following the ruling, the Ministry could choose to amend the basin plan and, in one step, establish the flow planned for two years from now. That is, it would advance by two years the cut of more than one hundred hectometres of water planned for 2027.

The only positive aspect is that the judges do not establish what the minimum flow should be in the Tajo, only that the option of establishing a staggered increase in protected areas "does not conform to the provisions of the WFD (Water Framework Directive) or the internal legislation that transposes it." Thus, Ecological Transition could completely redo the basin plan. But this option is the most complicated.

Another point in favour is that the Supreme Court dismisses part of the environmental platform's appeal, where it requested the immediate implementation of the flow planned for 2027 without progression. The same Court had already ruled on this in the judgment that rejected the Generalitat's appeal against the Tajo plan, where it upheld "the legality and justification of this staggered implementation regime of ecological flows."

The difference between that ruling and the current one is that "if the objectives (environmental) have not been established, it is evident that they cannot be met, and this results in complete lack of protection, from a water perspective," for the designated sections. "Not only is the environmental objective of achieving or maintaining the good status of waters linked to those protected areas being postponed, but the obligation to identify specific objectives and their degree of compliance is also being omitted."

Thus, in the absence of this information required by the European directive for hydrological plans in Spain, "it would not be possible, when executing the programmes of measures (which also include those conditioning the Tajo-Segura Transfer), to achieve compliance with all the rules and objectives" for the protected areas.