• Spain Teresa Ribera points out that the solution to the Mar Menor is to "respect the law" and defend the farmers who comply with it

  • Environment Mar Menor, chronology of an environmental disaster

  • Environmental crisis The tragedy of the Mar Menor: "The politicians had to eat the dead fish one by one"

The Minister for the Ecological Transition and Third Vice President of the Government,

Teresa Ribera

, and the President of the Murcia Region,

Fernando López Miras

, have shown themselves willing to put their differences behind and work together, as has been revealed by the highest authority of the autonomous community after the meeting held about the environmental crisis in which the Mar Menor has been for a week and a half.

At the meeting, which took place in the Palacio de San Esteban

in a "cordial" climate

, according to sources from the López Miras Executive, it was agreed to create a bilateral commission to periodically evaluate the information collected by both administrations and prevent future crisis in the area.

Ribera has also committed to studying the local proposal to recover part of the draft of the Marchamalo gorge - the channel that connects the Mar Menor with the Mediterranean - to oxygenate the southern basin of the lagoon, the area most affected this summer.

"We have explained that it would be a punctual, reversible and monitored action," they point out from the regional government

. The minister will rely on the scientific reports of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography before giving the green light to any action.

President López Miras has asked why the water supply is not immediately cut off when the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) detects illegal irrigation.

Ribera has argued that the process is complex

, it requires informing the irrigation communities and preserving public law.

It has been in favor of prioritizing a series of measures (specifically, 5, 6 and 9) of the Plan 'Dumping 0'.

Basically, these measures consist of the extraction of water from the aquifer on which the Murcian lagoon rests, which is responsible for much of the environmental problem as it is contaminated with nitrates and seeps through the subsoil or through spills from the Rambla del Alpujón.

Act at source

In turn, the minister has authorized the autonomous Executive to draft the

environmental impact assessment and the execution of the works of the north collector and the denitrification plant.

This would make it possible to extract all the water from the aforementioned Rambla, eliminate the nitrates and treat it in the optimal conditions to be able to pour it.

The López Miras Executive has also highlighted that all the files sent by the CHS to restore the lands affected

by illegal irrigation are being processed by the Ministry of Agriculture

, rejecting the recent accusations of the spokesman minister, Isabel Rodríguez, that part of them they were paralyzed.

"There has been a dance of figures that is going to take place at a technical level," the same sources point out.

With regard to the possibility of applying sanctions, the regional government alleges that it is a matter for the Confederation,

but it has promised to act "at source

.

"

In fact, it has announced the processing of a decree to prohibit nitrogen fertilizers in the area closest to the lagoon, a decree that is intended to be approved this Thursday or the next in the Governing Council.

The minister has valued this measure "positively".

"We hope that the good tone and the willingness to analyze the proposals

will translate into commitments

. Here we have an environmental emergency and the Government of Spain is in no hurry to resolve it," they point out from the Palacio de San Esteban.

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Know more

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