The protests and the work, on the massive engineering project at the Cenajo Reservoir aimed at improving the quality of our drinking water, have both ground to a halt.
Opinions differ as to why the project has been delayed. While local and regional politicians are claiming the project has been halted while the Government reconsiders diverting water away from the Rivers Segura and Mundo others blame delays in the tendering process or technical complications. The governing party, the PSOE, has announced that the delays are due to the “management of the project” and not due to representations from the President of the regional government, Ramón Luis Valcarcel.
There have been newspaper reports that claim 50% of the costs of the new slimmed down 150,000 project, fifty percent less than the original estimate, will be funded by Europe and other reports that claim, as yet, no application has been made to Europe.
Several alternative plans have been put forward which would safeguard the existing caudal of the rivers while fulfilling the aim of improving the drinking water for communities all over the Murcia region.
Although, apparently, the elevated canal and shorter pipeline, proposed by the local Platform for the Defence of the River Segura at a meeting held with the members of the Town Hall last month and reported in last month’s NEXOnr, has been rejected yet another alternative has been proposed by the Department of Agriculture.
Antonio Cerdá, Head of the Department, proposes modernizing the water treatment centre at Sierra de la Espada (which is producing most of the problematic “volatile chemicals” which are affecting the quality of drinking water) and the construction of a connection between the La Fuensanta reservoir and at the top of the River Segura, with the main canal of the Water Board. This would ensure drinking water of the best quality for 12 towns in the middle of the region, he claims, while in exchange the rivers running through Calasparra and Blanca would be “compensated” with water from the River Tajo and their caudals would remain the same.
While the Ministry of the Environment is reportedly “pushing on with the project” and “keen to secure” the 60 million euros in European funds, a central Government spokesman has declared “we seek a consensus and are keeping the door open.”
The environmentalists and the broad membership of the Platform in Defence of the River Segura, who oppose the pipelines that will reduce the caudal of both of Calasparra’s rivers, have decided to play a waiting game and have put their protest “on hold” for two months due to the “contradictory nature of the reports” on the status of the project. However, the group have called for more meetings with the pertinent Government Departments and applied for a special General Assembly of the regional government to approve a motion opposing the pipeline project.
The regional government has now pledged to pass a motion opposing the proposed pipeline from the Cenajo reservoir.
