1,639.67 hm3 of water. That is what the Entrepeñas and Buendía reservoirs store today at the head of the Tagus. This means that they have reached 65.11% of their capacity (compared to 48.52% last year) and, more importantly, that have reached level 1the maximum possible step.
Finally, some good news! After years of hardship, the river has reached its “dream level.” Then, we are going to empty it.
As? This same week, the Tajo-Segura Transfer Exploitation Commission is going to propose sending 180 hm3 of water to the Segura basin. It will be done in stages over three months. And the truth is that it was something totally predictable: the growth of reserves in the headwaters of the river has reached milestones that we have not seen since the late 90s.
In application of the transfer rules that were set in 2013the irrigators of Segura request that the necessary procedures be activated so that they can give them the water that is theirs. What happens is that the political mess is enormous.
What is happening with the water of the Tagus? Basically, by virtue of the Tagus Hydrological Plan, approved in 2023the transfer rules had to be updated to adapt them to the current reality. It has been tried; late, but it has been tried. What happens is that the process (due to the enormous political costs it entails) has been stalled for months and months. Right now, he is stopped waiting for pending resolutions in the Supreme Court.
This has generated a very complicated situation: the plan that was going to be approved included a progressive reduction of transfers up to 40% in the next five years. The stated intention was recover the Tagus River and look for management formats that do not focus on specific moments (“emptying the pantry just when we have finished filling it”), but on more global measures that do not compromise the management of the basins in the medium term.
But since it is not approved, the law is clear: Segura can claim its water and the Exploitation Commission will proceed to send it.
The central issue is whether all this is a mirage or not. It is not lost on anyone that this January has not been a normal month (it has been the rainiest in the last 25 years) and, for this reason, each of the parties wants to use ‘this gift from heaven‘ for their own interests: some to regenerate the Tagus (and ensure the economic activity linked to it) and the others to keep the Segura agroindustry alive.
That is, we have to choose at the worst possible moment: with the elections just around the corner.
Image | Maria LVRZ
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