The government is once again boycotting transfers in the Valencian Community, in this case internal ones, without the pressure of the Castilian-Manchego president, Emiliano García-Page, decline has fix the San Diego pond, in Villena (Alicante) and mortgage the future of the water transfers from Júcar to Vinalopó, which are now starting to operate.
Despite warning calls from several leaders of the Generalitat Valenciana for the leaks of this infrastructure for more than a decadeThe central executive excludes remedying this deficiency because it does not consider it “urgent” and does not include it in its budgetary allocations.
The last to say so was the Minister of Agriculture, Water, Livestock and Fisheries, Miguel Barrachinawho warned about the viability because “the Júcar-Vinalopó becomes useless” without this repair.
The reason is that it is “a pond that loses 100% of its water and, therefore, this pond that was accepted does not work. Of the transfer of 80 hectometres, more than 60 will be lost, because there are no conditions.
In a parliamentary response to Alicante MP Joaquín Melgarejo, the government said that correcting these leaks “is very Dear“, to which Minister Barrachina responded that “it is more expensive to let water go to waste and waste an entire transfer.” lose“.
Precisely the other reason given by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez emphasizes that initially the Júcar-Vinalopó was designed for a maximum annual capacity of this volume, 80 hm3, but for now this flow will not circulate. The councilor emphasizes, however, that irrigators cannot accumulate reserves for periods when the needs are greatest.
In the same spirit, the President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazonhad also developed his rejection of this policy of refusing water to this region: “Not content with having paralyzed the Tajo-Segura transfer 26 times in a political and unjustifiable manner, they now want to paralyze the Júcar-Vinalopó.”
He compared his management of this infrastructure, evident in the post-transfer works, with an investment of more than 30 million euros in sections 1 and 2, “while the government tells us that water cannot be retained in San Diego because the reform “It is not a priority, so water will not be able to circulate through these works.”
In short, according to him, there is a clear intention: “Pedro Sánchez ignores us, they deny us the transfers, the pipes, the water that the province of Alicante needs.” For this reason, he is described as “excuse” And “unpresentable” the refusal of this reparation.
Mazón plans to travel to Vinalopó this Wednesday for the symbolic cup of the first group of grapes in bag at the beginning of the harvest, one of the crops that will benefit most from the water inputs from Júcar. Initially, 22 hm3 will be transferred in this first year.
For her part, the Director General of Water and Rural Development, Sabine Gorettiexplained that “for water to reach irrigators and for sections I and II of the post-transfer works to be operational, the central government must commit to repairing the San Diego pond.”
Thus, Goretti stressed “this cannot do abandon of functions and must respect the commitment” to “provide a definitive and viable solution to the problems that arise in the San Diego reservoir, and which they have not been able to do from the first moment.” With his attitude, “he highlights hazard a strategic sector and thousands of jobs” he added.
