Juanma Moreno, president of the Junta de Andalucía, points out the need for there to be a “unitary” plan by all administrations to face the “drama” that the drought represents, a problem that has caused the region to find itself for months in a state of emergency and where the IV Drought Decree has been approved with guidelines to alleviate the effects of the lack of precipitation. The impact of the drought on the Andalusian economy is estimated at 2.1 points of GDP, according to data from the regional government, causing vital sectors in the community, such as agriculture or livestock, to falter.
Hydraulic works, desalination and the use of regenerated water are one of the solutions to this situation, although the possibility of water arriving by boat to Andalusian ports or that we can count on the ‘solidarity’ of other territories so that transfers are viable. The leader of the PP-A advocates a “great pact for water” to cover the needs of all territories “without selfishness and without particularities.”
The head of San Telmo pointed towards this line, he announced that he will meet at the end of the month with the third vice president of the national government, Teresa Ribera, at the end of the month with the objective of “working, collaborating together and marking which hydraulic works are needed in Andalusia and which ones are the responsibility of the Government and the community and to set a schedule and together try to alleviate a situation that is going to be dramatic if it does not rain in the next week.”
For his part, Pedro Sánchez, president of Spain, pointed out that it is the autonomous communities that have jurisdiction in the supply of water, although he stressed that his Government will reach out to both Andalusia and Catalonia, the regions where The drought is hitting harder.
Ribera, for his part, has admitted today that the possibility of bringing water by boat to Andalusian ports, as is going to be done in Catalonia, may be a viable option, although how to do it would have to be carefully studied. “We have to see what the alternatives are and obviously one of them could be something similar to this,” Ribera acknowledged in an interview on RNE. “Last Friday I spoke with President Moreno Bonilla and we agreed that they would have to carefully outline more precisely what the alternatives are for each of the locations that may be at risk and on that basis we will talk next week or the following week,” explained the minister.
Ribera, who regretted that the desalination plant project in the area of ??Malaga and Fuengirola was paralyzed in 2012, has indicated that one of the aspects to be studied is “where the water that can be taken by boat to the ports of cities and metropolitan areas.
All avenues and options are open, including asking for help to carry out a transfer between communities if necessary, as is being done in Catalonia, an issue that will have to be studied jointly with the central government. “The Andalusians, like a part of the Spaniards, have a problem, and when they have a problem what the administrations have to do is work together and cooperate. That is what I want,” declared Moreno, who values ??the “principle of interterritorial solidarity” that exists in the country and that makes “a country a country”
In this context, Moreno welcomes the Valencian Community providing water to Catalonia. “In the end, what nationalists and independence supporters have to realize is that they have more instruments to provide services to their citizens and quality of citizen life when you live in a community, in a common and shared project such as Spain and in a common and shared project such as Europe,” he noted. “I think that the president of the Generalitat has done what a ruler has to do, which is to seek cooperation and collaboration with the rest of the administrations, I think that is the right thing to do and I think that this solidarity should be permanent and always in both directions In other words, when Catalonia needs the rest of the Spaniards, the rest of the Spaniards will be there and when the rest of the Spaniards need Catalonia, Catalonia must also be there, that is the principle of solidarity that I believe must be protected,” stated the Andalusian.
It is neither sustainable nor compatible with the drought situation that Andalusia is experiencing and which is a structural problem of the community with the creation of new macro-urbanizations or the proliferation of tourist apartments scattered throughout the region. This is stated by IU, whose spokesperson, Ernesto Alba, criticizes that the Board “continues to promote a productive model that needs more water than our environment provides.” “Both macro urbanizations, irrigation in dryland areas and tourist apartments consume four times more than a normal family home,” said Alba, who added that “this is where our contradiction comes in,” since “while these projects are allowed, in the end the supply cuts and the problem of who is paying for it They are families in their daily lives.
“Drought is not something circumstantial and temporary solutions or solutions based on large infrastructures such as desalination plants or bringing water by boat are not the solution,” says the spokesperson for the left, who believes that more attention must be paid “to the social table.” of water” that proposes a “change in the water management structure, with more transparency, with more participation of all social actors in Andalusia and with important accountability”, in addition to “with true planning that allows us to comply the problem with a strategic sense”.
