The 2,759 inhabitants of Karrantza (Bizkaia) and the 12,000 head of cattle in this agricultural and livestock region will have guaranteed water supply with tank trucks in the coming weeks thanks to Cantabria.

The municipalities of Ramales de la Victoria and, if necessary, of Ampuero will provide Karrantza with water that the Provincial Council of Bizkaia has not guaranteed to the mayor Raúl Palacio has requested with the two rafts that supply the valley under minimum conditions.

Palacio, representative of an independent local party that ousted the PNV from the mayor's office in 2012, intends to maintain municipal water management in the face of pressure from institutions controlled by the PNV to join the Bizkaia Water Consortium.

Over the next few weeks, Karrantza will receive 7 trucks of purified water from the rivers that supply the municipality of Ramales de la Victoria.

The first tank with 28,000 liters of water arrived today at 1:30 p.m.

The agreement reached between the mayors of Karrantza and Ramales de la Victoria is only conditional on the Cantabrian municipality having its own supply guaranteed.

Neither of the two consistories has yet evaluated the cost of this solution, which will last until the rain reaches one of the wettest regions in Spain, but in which the drought and, above all, a long political battle has put the water supply for the largest municipality in Bizkaia.

"It strikes me that both the Bizkaia Provincial Council and the Basque Government, which are very powerful administrations, refuse to guarantee the water supply to one of their municipalities," César García, the mayor of Ramales de la Victoria at the beginning of the transport of water in trucks.

A "rather unsupportive" attitude, according to the first Cantabrian mayor, which is not due to water problems in the Basque Country with the supply guaranteed by the Zadorra reservoirs (at 66.37% of its capacity with 148 cubic hectometres) and by the catchments in rivers and springs.

The water problems in Karrantza denounced by Raúl Palacio in the last decade are directly linked to the City Council's decision to maintain municipal management of this service without accepting the conditions imposed by the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium, a public company controlled by the PNV to which most of the Biscayan municipalities belong.

Palacio made one last attempt on August 16 to find a solution to the supply problem with the Bizkaia Provincial Council, co-governed by the PNV and PSE-EE, when the two supply pools only guaranteed water for one more month.

Mayor Palacio's appointment with the director of the Natural Environment of the Bizkaia Provincial Council ended without any solution.

Neither money to guarantee the supply with other sources nor water.

The mayor of Karrantza interprets the disdain of the Biscayan Provincial Council as another twist against this City Council managed by a local party that emerged as a neighborhood platform.

The first mayor of Karrantza, focused on the search for immediate solutions to the consequences for his neighbors and for the livestock farms of the drought, recalls that one of the rafts built by the Provincial Council has had problems for 12 years that limit 43% of its ability.

But, in addition, the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium has established "impossible" conditions to guarantee the water supply to Karrantza with its connection to the network that captures water from the Zadorra reservoirs in Alava.

"The Consortium requires us to invest 10 million euros in the secondary water distribution network which, according to a report by the Municipal Intervention, is impossible to assume and, in addition, imposes tariffs that would mean the closure of 70% of the livestock farms in the municipality," says Raúl Palacio, watching the Cantabrian trucks and looking up at the clouds that only obscured the Karrantza sky.

Foresighted in the face of uncertainties, the mayor has closed a second agreement with the Government of Cantabria to transport water from Ampuero if the drought persists and the Basque administration continues to turn its back on the 2,759 Basques of Karrantza.

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