- The Secretary of State for the Environment presented today in Cartagena the progress report on the ministry’s plan to regenerate the lagoon and its surroundings, to which the 2023 General State Budget will dedicate 148.75 million
- He has held meetings with mayors, social organizations and representatives of scientific institutions within the framework of a conference to promote sustainable agriculture in the catchment basin
- In addition, he chaired the meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Collaboration Agreement for the Recovery of Portmán Bay in La Unión
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has already recorded and launched interventions included in the Framework of Priority Actions for the Mar Menor (MAPMM) worth 96.9 million euros, 20% of the total investment planned for the recovery of the lagoon and its surroundings until 2026. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, reviewed today in Cartagena the degree of execution of the plan, to which the draft General State Budget for 2023 dedicates 148.75 million euros in different items. During his visit to the region of Murcia, Morán highlighted the good progress in the implementation of the MAPMM measures. The 61 million euros allocated last July have increased by more than 50% and the Ministry’s will is to continue working on the ground “at the same pace, in the same participatory way and with the same commitment that this unique enclave and the socio-economic fabric that surrounds them deserves”, he said. In this sense, all MITECO departments are striving to speed up the administrative processes to execute the planned actions with guarantees in the shortest possible time. The Secretary of State has held meetings with mayors of municipalities in the Mar Menor basin, citizen organizations and representatives of scientific organizations, coinciding with the inauguration of a specific conference on sustainable agriculture practices with farmers, irrigators and representatives of the primary sector of the Campo de Cartagena. The session, organized by the Technical Office of the Mar Menor, responds to the commitment of MITECO – together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – to agree on criteria to activate measures for the restoration and environmental improvement of agricultural farms in the region. To this end, an initial line of aid of 20 million euros is planned, the call for which will be launched at the beginning of next year by the Biodiversity Foundation. “It is about building together the mechanism for calling for and allocating aid, because we want those 20 million to be executed in their entirety and serve the purpose pursued, a more sustainable model that has less impact on the Mar Menor,” Morán stressed.
RESTITUTION OF LEGALITY
In his summary of progress in the execution of the MAPMM, Morán highlighted the restitution to legality of irrigation in the Campo de Cartagena as one of the keys to its good progress. Thanks to the work of the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS), the disconnection and cessation of the supply in 6,679 hectares of illegal irrigation has been completed, of which 4,732 have been voluntary. In addition, a total of 398 disciplinary proceedings have been processed for illegal irrigation over an area of 6,195 hectares and another 70 disciplinary proceedings for illegal irrigation corresponding to 1,291 hectares more. Of these, in compliance with Law 3/2020, of 27 July, on the recovery and protection of the Mar Menor, a total of 333 files have been sent to the Autonomous Community, the final ones in administrative proceedings, for the restitution to their original state of the 5,365 hectares with which they correspond. Thanks to the “great monitoring effort” of the CHS to comply with the precautionary measures, it has been possible to “substantially reduce the pressures on resources and the contribution of pollutants to the lagoon and, at the same time, defend the farmers of the countryside of Cartagena who comply with the law and abide by good practices”. he said. As essential axes in which the implementation of the MAPMM is advancing, the Secretary of State has also cited, among others, the restoration of abandoned dangerous mining sites in the surroundings of the lagoon, and the creation of the Green Belt, aimed at the environmental integration of more than 900 hectares, with the implementation of three semi-natural wetlands in the final sections of the Albujón (Bocarrambla) and Miranda riverbeds. and in the area bordering the regional park of the Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar. MITECO plans to start the environmental processing of this project next November and the contracting in spring 2023. Its overall investment reaches 17.9 million euros for an area of more than 110 hectares.
COLLABORATION
The hydrological-forestry regeneration to reduce the risk of flooding and environmental improvement of the Matildes, Beal, Carrasquilla and Barranco de Ponce riverbeds is already being carried out with an investment of 7.74 million euros. In the field of the protection of the Mediterranean coast, the Directorate General for the Coast and the Sea sets for February 2023 the project to remove the Puerto Mayor facilities and their environmental recovery. And, for its part, the CHS is finalizing sections 2 and 3 of the Albujón riverbed drive. The complete and updated report on the progress made in the implementation of the MMMAP can be found here. The Secretary of State for the Environment has stressed the importance of collaboration between administrations and with the agents involved in the recovery of the lagoon. In this sense, he has given as an example the 20 million euros allocated to riverside municipalities for the improvement of sanitation networks and their connection with hamlets and scattered areas that do not yet have this service. In addition to a space of enormous ecological value, “the Mar Menor is a space of coexistence in which all those who are there will continue to coexist in the territory, so citizen, sectoral and administrative collaboration is essential,” Morán stressed.
PORTMAN
In La Unión, the Secretary of State chaired the Monitoring Commission for the Recovery and Environmental Adaptation of Portmán Bay. Together with the Minister of Development and Infrastructure, José Ramón Díez de Revenga, he has reaffirmed the commitment to promote the comprehensive regeneration project jointly, including the rehabilitation of the beach promoted by the General Directorate of Coasts of MITECO and the marina project to be executed by the Government of the CARM. From this moment, the teams of both administrations will work in a coordinated manner to advance in all administrative and technical procedures, in parallel and in the shortest possible time. The meeting was also attended by the Government delegate in Murcia, the mayor’s office of La Unión and the neighbors, who have asked that “the climate of understanding” be maintained to successfully complete the recovery of this space on the Murcian coast.
