The threat of a veto definitive connection of La Colada with Sierra Boyera by the president of Hydrographic Confederation del Guadiana, Samuel Moraleda, in a forum held in Pozoblanco, raised eyebrows within the Junta de Andalucía and the Provincial Deputation of Córdoba. However, a meeting with the basin organization could take place this week to try to clarify positions after these declarations.
The first is about to sign the contract worth just over 9 million euros with the Cordoba company Jicar to complete the secondary network of the marsh paralyzed in 2009 by the PSOE and that the mayors and the Northern neighbors of the province of Córdobaespecially after having spent a year without being able to consume water for domestic use, to guarantee this supply.
The second after undertaking a first phase of improvement of the water treatment station of Sierra Boyera for 4 million euros and having presented an ambitious plan for hydraulic works throughout the province (including the North and a second phase of this ETAP) for 32 million euros.
The territorial delegate of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Junta of Cordoba, Francisco Acosta, showed his “surprise” to ABC for what “seems to be a threat not only to the Andalusian government but also to the citizens of northern Cordoba” for work “that the Confederations of Guadiana and Guadalquivir recently requested from us.” “I fear that this could lead to political motivation and I think it’s another question of ignorance about what we want to do, which is nothing other than improving an existing work and making it definitive,” he added.
Samuel Moraleda said last Friday during a forum in Los Pedroches that “it would be a disaster and a failure if we carry out a repetition or a second job to bring water when it is already working.” He also stressed that “we will see When is it authorized and under what conditions?because we have to. And he came to say that he had discovered the work through the media: “I read with discouragement that another work is going to be rewarded.”
Acosta recalled that during the period of public exposure of the La Colada project, which the Junta de Andalucía qualified as regional interest in 2020, no allegation was received from any confederation in the sense of opposition to this work. An aspect that the president of the Provincial Delegation of Cordoba also highlighted this Tuesday, Salvador Fuentes, who does not believe these words.
And at the same time, the delegate for Agriculture stressed that in The 2023 authorization was requested from the Guadiana Confederation To run the project, open a file and request a license. He then replied that this would be conditional on the granting of water to Emproacsa, the authorization to take water from the marsh and distribute it. The basin organization to which La Colada belongs must authorize the work because it is requested, as well as the police zone to which it is called.
Pass on the cost of the work to La Colada
Acosta recalled that in the emergency works carried out by Acuaes – a company belonging to the Conederación del Guadiana – for 4.3 million between the two reservoirs, pre-existing pipelines from La Colada were used. “It is not a question of judging this emergency work, but rather of knowing that we are going to improve what has existed since 2007.”
Among other improvements, the new pipeline will allow a flow of 600 liters per second to the AEP of Sierra Boyera guaranteeing better subsequent distribution to the beneficiary municipalities. Electricity supply will also be strengthened throughout the entire pumping and supply network, which was very limited during the emergency works carried out by the government – one of the activated generators burned down in June 2023.
Another of the objections that Moraleda has put forward is that the cost of the work of the Junta de Andalucía in La Colada should end up being passed on to the inhabitants of the area in 25 years due to the imperative of the water law. . Francisco Acosta clarified to ABC that this action is carried out at the expense of water cannon that the Junta de Andalucía has been charging since 2012, which is why it has denied that it is passed on to neighbors.
Criticism of the Provincial Council of Córdoba
For his part, Fuentes said that “he will fight for the work to be carried out if the Confederation stops it.” “I’ll give the benefit of the doubt. There is a meeting between the regional government and CHG and I think it must come to fruition because this connection is absolutely essential,” he stressed.
The president of the Provincial Council wanted to say that “what I am saying is that This work is not going to stop. It will be done and it must be done. And if not, he will have the duty to establish me in Madrid or wherever it is necessary,” he warned. “It is not up to us to start now with absolutely sterile debates and paralyze a vital connection,” declared the president of the Provincial Council, recalling that eighty thousand Cordoba residents had been deprived of drinking water for a year.
As the territorial delegate of Agriculture recalled, the link between these two marshes was “exposed to the public and no one made any allegations”. According to him, if the Hydrographic Confederation of Guadiana rejected the work, “he could have complained and seen how the performance could be redirected”. But, he remembers, “he didn’t say anything.” “And now this Confederation presents itself as a vague verse and says that it will see if it grants water to the North,” he criticized.
Salvador Fuentes recalled that the The Provincial Council and the Council do their homework: The Regional Administration awarded the works of connecting the Colada and the Sierra Boyera and, in addition, financed with four million the works of purifying the water of the first reservoir – the North could not drink from the tap due to contamination of Colada water.
He also reminded the basin body that it is their responsibility to ensure that the water is fit for human consumption. “It has been raining and there has been water for a few years. At that time we must solve all the structural problems of water”, he said, in a message that he has already repeated in recent times. Finally, he recalled that Sierra Boyera was designed to supply eleven municipalities and that it now supplies 27.
