The Minister of Water, Carmen Crespo, has announced that the Board is going to send a letter today to the Ministry of Agriculture to request the convening this April of the National Drought Table.
“It is the ideal moment to convene a table that is absolutely fundamental for all of Spain and especially for the driest Spain. We cannot alone at this time ”, he stated in statements to the media in El Ejido (Almería).
It has influenced that the Junta de Andalucía and its president, Juanma Moreno, have articulated all the measures at their disposal to fight against the drought. “We need the other administrations. The city councils are also pulling themselves (...) But we need the Government of Spain ”, she insisted.
For this reason, it has considered it necessary to convene the National Drought Table in order to identify the situation in which the country is, especially “dry Spain”.
He recalled that this month the third drought decree will be presented to the Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía: “We are at 29.4% of our capacity in the Andalusian reservoirs. We are at 3,251 hectometres (…) Last year there was already a persistent drought and we were at 4,207 cubic hectometres, having a capacity of more than 11,000”, he remarked.
Faced with this situation, he recalled that the Andalusian Government has articulated two drought decrees that are already at "72% of their performance and practically all put into operation."
For its part, the third decree that will be approved this month comes to "round off" and "complete" the actions that "at this time can be done", although it has insisted that it is necessary to "bring your shoulder together".
Along these lines, he stressed that Andalusia is responsible for 33% of the community's basins, while the remaining 67% belong to the State, which "has only made a drought decree with 9.7 million euros."
"We ask you to go deeper into the capacity of your actions with respect to the drought," he claimed.
In the case of Almería, he has indicated that there are two "very complicated" reservoirs, the Beninar and Cuevas del Almanzora reservoirs, and given the lack of rain forecasts, he has stated that he will ask the Government about the progress in the works of the Almanzora desalination plant and whether it is planned to expand the one in Carboneras (Almería).
Regarding the announced recourse to the cuts from the Tagus-Segura transfer, the counselor pointed out that during Holy Week she has contacted the governments of the Valencian Community and Murcia, since they have a "common line" and "going together we have more odds".
He has indicated that the appeal will be presented this Monday and has explained that it has already been requested through the Governing Council that the Supreme Court give a hearing to be able to present it and all the precautionary measures that the three autonomous communities have decided to request.
