In a critical situation such as that experienced last weekend in the Vega Baja of Alicante in which most of the citizenship is positively valuing the unanimity between the provincial and regional institutions, despite the different political color, all critical views They point to the Segura Hydrographic Confederation, under the Ministry of Ecological Transition led by the socialist Teresa Ribera. Especially by the farmers of a region in which the irrigators know the path of a deficit river like the Segura that every month needs contributions from the Tagus basin.

Yesterday, after five days of rains, riverbeds and floods, the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) finally authorized the breaking of the central dike at the mouth of the river in Guardamar to facilitate drainage to the sea. From Asaja, Francisco Mora , finally raised his voice. And he did it to criticize the "neglect" of the Ministry and how many of the socialists in the region have "pressured" the farmers so that they do not complain about the lack of cleanliness of the channels . «It has been a total abandonment. The Ministry of Environment charges us a regulation fee to pay for the maintenance of the river and we do not know what is done with that money because the river was full of reeds that have prevented normal drainage. Moreover, he denounced that the last break in the speck of the riverbed in the neighboring town of Almoradí has ​​occurred very close to where it broke in the floods of 1987. "That is because nobody has watched the channels," he adds.

The outrage in Guardamar was obvious. As the farmers explained on Monday morning, the crops in their garden had 50 centimeters of water. Yesterday, before 16.15 hours a machine finished breaking the dam that prevented the drain, 3 meters. " We have had to wait and we have lost everything and above the Confederation technicians tell us not to complain , that they are working while in Murcia are the parties of the Bando de la Huerta ."

The mayor of Guardamar himself, the socialist José Luis Sáez, regretted yesterday the "delay" of the basin organization "despite the fact that the action had been requested days ago."

Mora agrees in his analysis with another farmer, Antonio Alberca, who has lost everything he had planted in his 300 tahullas (local measure equivalent to about 35.5 hectares) in the neighboring municipality of Daya Vieja , mainly artichokes, sweet potatoes and cauliflower . Pool accuses the Confederation of taking more than four years without cleaning the river. He estimates that his annual investment of 75,000 euros is completely lost and that he will be at least six months without being able to collect what he poses now. "My only hope is to declare a catastrophic zone as in 1987 and the Government grant us loans at 0% interest and lack of at least three years, as then." Of course, he is skeptical: «They say that they want to give the money to the Town Hall and that they distribute. Of that nothing. Farmers' money must be for farmers.

'Zero euros' to clean the river; 6 million to representation

Miguel Pedro Mazón, secretary-lawyer of the Private Court of Aguas de Orihuela, denounced yesterday that the Segura Hydrographic Confederation has spent in 2018 the amount of "zero euros" in cleaning the river ("defense of avenues"), for "lack of budgetary availability », while he has spent more than 6 million euros on the general secretary and presidency. «We have been denouncing the absolute abandonment of the riverbed as it passes through the Vega Baja so, given what happened, the legal services of the irrigation communities do not waive the filing of a complaint against the current and former CHS officials » , said Mazón, who attached a series of emails requiring the CHS to clean the river dated since 2015.

Mazón said that from CHS they were told that they could not remove the reeds (“baldomeras”) that fill the channel because they are “consubstantial to the river” elements and when they were asked that the local farmers could put the sheep so that in a natural way clean the area, they were told "they didn't know if their excrement could contaminate the Segura."

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  • Teresa Ribera

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