After the last rains The political stagnation drowns the Mar Menor
In zodiac by the Mar Menor "If they tell you that the water is rotten, who is going to come here?"
Citizens took to the streets again this Thursday to protest the three deaths in five years in Mar Menor.
The Murcian lagoon has not raised its head since in 2016 it suffered the first episode of anoxia that dyed its waters green, saw three tons of fish die in 2019 and 15 tons of flora and fauna this summer.
On this occasion, the demonstration has not been at the gates of the Murcia Regional Assembly in Cartagena, where more than 50,000 people gathered in 2019, but in the Murcian capital itself, around the headquarters of the Government in the Region and in front of the Ministry of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Environment of the administration of this autonomous community.
The claims are various but all pursue the same goal: to push both administrations to act to end the pollution of the salty lagoon and for life to return to its waters.
To the conveners, the citizen associations Pact for the Mar Menor;
the Association of Naturalists of the Southeast (ANSE);
the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Cartagena and the Region (FAVCAC);
the regional group of Ecologists in Action;
the Association for the Fishing Development of the Mar Menor and its Environment (ADEPEM);
the platform promoted by the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) to give the Mar Menor legal personality;
and the SOS Mar Menor and Por un Mar Menor Vivo groups;
185 social, environmental, neighborhood and union organizations joined.
Combat the source of the problem
All of them demand "the recovery of the Mar Menor, patrimony of all citizens, whose degradation is suffered by the whole society," Pedro García, director of ANSE, comments to EL MUNDO. Among other demands, in the demonstration voices were heard asking "to act at the origin of the problem" (referring to the illegal use of groundwater from the Campo de Cartagena aquifer and the abuse of agricultural fertilizers); impose "a moratorium that paralyzes unnecessary construction in La Manga and in the coastal towns of Mar Menor"; or "restore the ecosystem and its wetlands."
Given that "solutions are demanded from all the administrations involved" and "especially from the regional government, which has more competences," as Pacto por Mar Menor pointed out last night, the group stressed the need
"for them to work together, loyally and coordinated ".
For this reason, the call started at eight in the afternoon from two points: the Government Delegation in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia and the Palace of San Esteban, seat of the Presidency of the Region of Murcia.
Both routes joined in the Plaza dela Fuensanta with final destination to the Plaza Juan XXIII, where the Ministry of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Environment is located.
There a manifesto was read and an emblematic song for Mar Menor was heard, the charity song Sol y Sal, composed by the Cartagena group Nunatak and performed by various artists, such as Miguel Ríos, Rozalén, Carlos Tarque from M Clan or Anni B Sweet.
Simultaneously, the protest in Murcia was accompanied by rallies in other parts of Spain and abroad.
In support of Mar Menor, at eight o'clock in the afternoon, numerous protesters gathered in the Plaza del Sol in Madrid and in different parts of Valencia, Pamplona, San Sebastián, Bilbao or Brussels.
Different voices, different protests
EL MUNDO has collected through social networks the different reasons why the convening groups and citizens attended the protest.
SOS Mar Menor
: "I go because I want someone to do something at once. Absolutely nothing is done. Besides having grown up with him, I want to continue enjoying it. I don't want to lose my home."
We chose Mar Menor
: "The problems of the Mar Menor derive from the extreme developmentalism of the last decades. Reduce is our demand. Reduce pressure, reduce cultivated and built area, water used, agrochemicals, pig farms ..."
The Mar Menor de los Niños
: "There is only one Mar Menor and it is not protected despite six existing figures. Everything that happens to Mar Menor will have consequences for the children of the Region and the Region. I am going because it is an obligation, to ask for decency and law in the management of natural courses ".
David Avilés, a resident of Mar Menor
: "I am aware that social mobilization works. I am going to save the territory where our individual and collective lives develop, the territory where our riverside culture lands."
Greenpeace Murcia
: "We will denounce the mismanagement of the regional executive in more than two decades, with the majority of powers and responsibility over the Mar Menor, without any initiative".
Platform in Defense of the Sources
: "At this point in life the same should be collected the reasons of those who do not want to go. Although they are less confessable than the tons of reasons to go."
María Dolores Martínez, music therapist from Murcia
: "I am going to continue with the countdown of collecting signatures and fight until the last day to get the ILP of Mar Menor (its legal personality) and make it a living sea again".
Francisco J. Rodríguez, historian and archaeologist from Cartagena
: "After years of inaction, the Mar Menor is dying and the only way to defend our heritage is with social mobilization."
The naturalist and influencer MarMenor KO
: "
Attending
the demonstration on October 7 is an obligation for all the inhabitants of the Region."
For Un Mar Menor Vivo
: "I am going so that the public administrations act at the origin and the culprits resign. So that the Ministry of the Environment is separated. Stop building. And restore the historical and natural heritage that remains."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
science
Science and Health
Climate crisisThe interactive atlas of climate change developed by Spanish scientists: "Better understanding the data encourages action"
Environment Fernando Valladares, ADENEX and Kew Gardens, FBBVA Biodiversity Conservation Awards
EnvironmentThe political stalemate drowns the Mar Menor
See links of interest
The Palm
Last News
What
Work calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Master Investigation Journalism
How to set up Chromecast
How to delete an Instagram account
FC Bayern Munich - Barça
Semifinal, live: Belgium - France