Unexpected political thaw between the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. When positions seemed more acrimonious than ever, both institutions have entered a new period of dialogue and have decided to channel the negotiation on the controversial issue of the regularization of illegal irrigation in the area of ??Doñana.
The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has announced a postponement of the imminent final debate of the bill promoted by PP-A and Vox in the Andalusian Parliament to regularize illegal irrigation in the County of Huelva region. This was indicated after a meeting held in Seville with the acting third vice president of the Government, Teresa Ribera.
This postponement occurred the day before the table of the Andalusian Parliament planned to include said bill, which has been rejected by the Government of Pedro Sánchez from the first moment, on the agenda of next week’s plenary session of the Chamber. , left-wing groups and environmental NGOs.
Moreno Bonilla justified his decision with calls for dialogue. “We have started a dialogue that I hope and wish will be fruitful, honest, sincere and sensible,” said the Andalusian president.
In this sense, it has been agreed to bring together the teams of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, headed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, and the Board, with the advisor to the Presidency, Antonio Sanz, at the head with the desire that within a period of one month a consensus solution can be proposed that is agreed upon by all parties. Moreno said that his decision seeks to gain time, “to be able to dialogue, talk, build, improve, propose; In short, to be able to move forward”; and he insisted that the problems of the families affected by the lands that are now intended to be regularized must be “solved.”
Minister Teresa Ribera expressed her hope that this dialogue process with the Andalusian Junta will serve to “respect current legality” and “be inserted within the international commitments” assumed by Spain to protect Doñana. “We must respond to international organizations and I hope that it will serve to close Spain’s infringement procedure and satisfy the expectations of all parties.”
Ribera referred to the Framework of Alternative Actions for Doñana, endowed with 350 million euros, and intended to meet the commitment with Brussels with a view to “releasing waters for Doñana.”
The minister did not want to specify the keys to the possible pact while waiting to speak with the affected sectors.
The government representative has defended that the future transfer of almost 20 cubic hectometers from the Tinto-Odiel-Piedras demarcation should serve to transfer water to the Doñana environment but so that its legal farmers stop using water from the wells and can thus reducing the pressure on the aquifer.
He said that this transfer “has allowed us to close 490 legal wells,” to which he has added the closure of another 239 illegal ones.
The Board’s proposal sought to change the nature of the land from being forestry to being classified as agricultural land irrigated with surface water. This would leave the door open to possible farmers’ water rights, which the Government, which is the one that has powers over water in these transfers, has been radically opposed.
Teresa Ribera spoke out in favor of providing the Doñana environment with viable alternative solutions without involving an increase in water use, especially in a context of drought, also convinced that “it is difficult to have one” and that must create a scenario where everyone thinks that “it is better to consolidate these alternatives than to rely on more water resources”.
