Noa de la Torre Valencia

Valencia

Updated Tuesday, February 13, 2024-16:37

  • Drought The Government confirms that it will take desalinated water on ships from Sagunto to Catalonia

"I've been waiting for her all my life." The phrase, by Valencian President Carlos Mazón, reflects the political significance of the first meeting that he will hold with the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, next Monday in

Madrid

. "Water is one of the struggles of my life," the president of the

Generalitat

insisted this Tuesday after his meeting with representatives of agricultural organizations. Water, in fact, focused a good part of the PP's opposition work and a good part of the Mazón Executive's protest agenda will revolve around it.

The head of the Consell revealed this Tuesday that on Monday he will go to the Ministry to put on the table "the immediate elimination of the increase in political flows" from the Tagus. "That they are not ecological," Mazón has clarified, "because there is not a single report that accredits them." In short, a water war is back that has never subsided because the focus remains on the

Tajo-Segura

transfer .

That the coming scenario is a truly warlike one - politically speaking - is assumed by the

popular leader himself.

Mazón accuses the Ministry of unearthing the "hatchet" by "cutting the transfer 30 times against the opinion of the Ministry's technicians."

"I don't want to get into a water war, but I have the right to exercise legitimate defense," he assured after giving his support to the constitution of the

Agrarian Forum of the Valencian Community

, which aims to unite the voice of the sector in the midst of rebellion in the countryside. . In this sense, the Consell flatly rejects the increase in the ecological flow of the Tagus, since it in turn implies a cut in the water transferred from this river.

According to the Generalitat, this decision is not based on technical criteria, something that the previous government of

Ximo Puig

also defended . "That flow is not what the ideology says," repeated Mazón, for whom "what is an ideological reserve without rigor cannot be called an ecological reserve."

With these words, Mazón clearly delimits the battlefield, leaving the understanding with the Ministry regarding the shipment of desalinated water to Catalonia from

Sagunto

a mere mirage . What's more, if Mazón appealed to "water solidarity" to support the Ministry's proposal that will guarantee water for human consumption in

Catalonia

, it is precisely this idea that he will now use to request the transfer, which is insisted on to irrigate crops. .

Hence, Mazón has taken advantage of the "common front" with the farmers to promise the agricultural organizations that he will also convey their demands to Ribera. "It is the moment for the Government of Spain before Europe," he said, "to regret that" Mediterranean agriculture has always been a bargaining chip "in community negotiations.

"We believe in the sustainability that Europe preaches but not like Europe preaches. Sustainability means fair prices," explained

Cristóbal Aguado

, president of the Valencian Farmers Association (AVA). For his part,

Carles Peris

, general secretary of the Unió Llauradora, has highlighted the "unity" that the sector has shown for years to ask that administrations "provide solutions."