The Mayor of San Fulgencio, José Sampere, held a meeting last week with representatives of the Irrigation Union and the Director General of water, to discuss the controversial proposal for ‘green corridors’, promoted by the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura in the Flood Risk Management Plan for the Vega Baja.
Since the project was first published, the mayor has rejected the proposal which, in the event of flooding, “would mean diverting the overflowing water from other towns in the region to land located in the municipalities of Dolores, San Fulgencio or San Felipe Neri, which are at a lower altitude, with the risk of those too being seriously affected”.
Sampere said that “we are not going to consent in any way to being turned into a ‘sacrifice zone’ for the benefit of the rest of the region,” adding, “It’s adoption could lead to great losses in population”.
Manuel Aldeguer from CHS explained that he only has responsibility for rivers and canals, he has no competence to act on the rest”. He said that any actions in this respect “are the responsibility of the Generalitat, the municipalities and the irrigation communities”.Antonio Trives, representative of the San Fulgencio Water Union, said that “as a union we are opposed to all aspects of this plan designed by the Confederation”.
The mayor said that with the rest of the towns that would be affected by this proposal, “we are going to demand that the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura cease its efforts and support the measures proposed by the Generalitat, which do have the support of both the irrigators and the municipalities”, as well as carrying out actions “to control the excess water in the river and its dredging in the event of flooding”.
Sampere added that there is greater concern among farmers after the publication of the CHS’s announcement of a call for tenders for a feasibility study of this project, “and which would involve the intervention of the basin organisation in the modification of the territory, the responsibility of the Generalitat, or of the irrigation structures and irrigation channels, the responsibility of the irrigators”.
The mayor of San Fulgencio said that “we are going to ask for this proposal to be withdrawn from the public sector contracting platform, as it goes beyond the competences of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura”.
