Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 26th June

On Wednesday we move into July, bringing increased tourist traffic to Spain and an uncertain and atypical summer ahead with the shadow of Covid hanging over us. Businesses have no doubts that they need the income tourism will bring, and many expat residents and property owners are desperate to see family and friends once again, but there is considerable unease about whether those stepping off the plane might bring "imported" cases along with the luggage.

We're still waiting to hear whether the British government will relax its 14 day quarantine restrictions to match the concession made by Spain and open the floodgates.

There has been a lot of concern this week about the renewed rise in new cases, with many outbreaks in different areas of Spain, but the authorities are now becoming increasingly efficient at tracing known contacts and isolating the hotspots to shut them down quickly. In most incidents the cases are "imported", not "home grown" but the message has been sent out loud and clear all week; be careful, Covid is still very much amongst us, so take care.

Be aware that we have a hot weather warning for Saturday and by Wednesday temperatures may hit 40 degrees Celsius in the Murcia Region.

Covid figures Murcia

Active cases: 42 (77 last Friday, 72 the week before and 71 the previous week)
Total cases diagnosed from the start of the crisis: 3,300 
33 people are in home quarantine (this figure was 71 last week, and 60 the week before)
9 are hospitalised, 1 in intensive care, so a good conclusion to the week with cases coming right down again. 
Fatalities: 150 (this is the same as last week with just one death in the last 3 weeks)
Number of cured cases from those diagnosed via swab testing 1,472.

In spite of a busy week, the closing figures on Friday afternoon are positive, with the number of active cases down to 42.

The last week.

Saturday: 6 new positives; 83 cases: Click for info

Sunday: 5 new positives; 87 cases: Click for info

Monday: 4 new cases, 22 recoveries, total of active cases drops to 69. 16 cases are associated with a new outbreak involving three Bolivian nationals who flew into Barajas airport in Madrid. 60 people are in quarantine in different parts of Spain associated with this one case. A new outbreak was also identified in the Moratalla municipality in north-west Murcia which was later found to be connected with this same case. Click for full article

Tuesday: 1 new positive relating to Bolivian outbreak, but number of recoveries (11) pushes active total back down to 59. Click for article

Wednesday: active cases drop to 41, no deaths, 2 new cases, both associated with the Bolivian outbreak which now accounts for 19 of the cases. Click for article

Thursday: 42 active cases, 2 new cases. 23 police officers were quarantined following the discovery that one of the illegal migrants who arrived in a boat on the Águilas coastline on Monday is Covid positive. All those who were involved in the arrival of 10 illegal migrants must now be tested for Covid. 2 new positives.  

The two new positives relate to two people from the same family resident in San Pedro del Pinatar and are Bolivian nationals. They relate to a different flight from Bolivia on the 10th June and are not believed to be connected to the other flight from Bolivia into Barajas Airport, Madrid, which caused an outbreak last week and arrived on the 3rd.

That outbreak has left 19 cases in the Murcia region, spread across Murcia, Cartagena and an outlying district of Moratalla in the north-west of the region, with 60 people now in isolation in different areas of Spain. Click for Thursday

Friday: Number of active cases 42; 9 hospitalised, only one of whom is in intensive care, the one new case is "imported" and relates to the illegal migrant who was detained in Águilas on Monday.

Covid figures Spain:

Saturday: 7 deaths, 134 new cases: Click for info

Sunday: 1 death, 141 new cases: Click for info

Monday: 1 death,125 new cases. Major outbreak in Aragón in the southern half of the province of Huesca linked to a fruit and vegetable farm has forced the Aragonese regional government to reapply restrictions from phase 2 of the de-escalation in the affected areas, effectively taking three of the comarcas, which are an administrative district within a province of the region, back down to phase 2 (later in the week this changed to four comarcas as the outbreak developed). For two consecutive days Aragon had reported 33 new cases.Controlling the movements of agricultural workers is difficult as they frequently travel in minibuses or coaches to different farms where their services are required on a daily basis, moving between different agricultural exploitations within a geographical area. In this case the workers frequently cross from one province to another to work on different farms.

 Navarra also reported two outbreaks with 21 cases, linked to the "family and social environment", the regional government said in a press release.Click for full info

Tuesday: 1 death, 108 new cases.  More than 40% of the new cases were in Aragón relating to the outbreaks in the provinces of Huesca and Zaragoza. A fourth comarca of Huesca returned to phase 2.Of the 108 new cases, 45 have been notified by the Aragón region, which has reported 2 deaths in the last 7 days; 25 by the Community of Madrid (5 deaths in that period); 15 for Catalonia (no deaths) and 13 for Navarra (no deaths).4 cases were diagnosed in the Basque Country, 2 in the Valencian Community, 2 in Castilla y León, 1 in Andalusia and 1 in Extremadura.

Wednesday: 2 deaths and 196 new cases: Of the 196 new positives, the largest number relates to Aragón, where an outbreak in an agricultural plant has resulted in four comarcas returning to phase 2 of the de-escalation process.

The new outbreaks, of  which there are now 36, are mainly in nursing homes, hospitals and fruit and vegetable farms or are imported cases. (see:  2 US residents become first new cases in Menorca for 48 days below)
The Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa warned that coronavirus could “return to strike Spain again,” and reported that the state is preparing a “national preparation and response plan” to cope with a second wave, focusing on early detection and monitoring.Click for article

Thursday: 3 deaths and 157 new cases.New cases are reported in 12 of the 17 Autonomous Regions of Spain.
Aragón accounts for 47 cases (4 comarcas of Huesca and Zaragoza remain in phase 2 with 165 cases), Madrid 39 and Andalucía 32, which together account for 75% of the total new cases.
A new coronavirus outbreak has been registered in A Mariña, on the coast of Lugo in Galicia, in which there are eight positives, all belonging to the same family nucleus.
On Thursday, the delegate of the Andalusian Government in Malaga said that there are already more than 80 people affected by coronavirus in the cluster in Malaga, at the Malaga Emergency Reception and Referral Center managed by the Red Cross which first came to light on Tuesday and manages illegal migrants arriving by boat from the African Continent. In Andalusia there are 5 outbreaks in total, in Málaga, Granada, Cádiz and Huelva, with 137 cases between them.

Covid

Spain will re-establish state of emergency if Covid situation becomes serious:On Tuesday the first vice president of the Spanish Government, Carmen Calvo, called for caution in order to avoid new outbreaks of coronavirus and warned that the state will again be "forceful" and could call a second state of alarm to prevent free movement around the country should it become necessary to do so.

"If we once again face a serious situation, the Government can call a state of alarm in one specific area of the country, or all of it," she said in an interview with the Antena 3 radio station.

This week Spain has been shocked by the large number of new outbreaks which have occurred all over the country and the rising number of new infections daily.On Tuesday when she made her comments there had been 36 new outbreaks.

The vice president maintained that it is not necessary in any of the cases at the moment to take any action beyond imposing quarantine, and in some cases, return to a phase of restrictions.
She was specifically referring to the current situation in Aragón, where a major outbreak in the southern half of the province of Huesca linked to a fruit and vegetable farm has forced the Aragonese regional government to reapply restrictions from phase 2 of the de-escalation in the affected areas, effectively taking four of the comarcas, which are an administrative district within a province of the region, back down to phase 2. Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Monday that this was “the most worrying of all the 36 outbreaks currently registered”.

On Tuesday an outbreak of 18 cases was detected in Lleida in a care home for the elderly, affecting 13 residents and 5 staff. Lleida is one of the four provinces of Catalonia. There are also 42 people in an enforced quarantine situation in the hotel Rambla de Lleida, the majority of them agricultural day workers. 7 have tested positive for Covid so far.

On Tuesday the number of positives relating to the return of three Bolivian nationals to the Region of Murcia also rose to 17 (the next day it went up to 19).

The vice president insisted that the current level of cases “is within the predictable” and reaffirmed the need to react quickly to symptoms and communicate them immediately so that the health authorities could be effective in their response.

Later in the day, however, María Jesús Montero, the Finance Minister of Spain stated that the government is not currently “considering a return to the state of emergency unless the situation changes drastically,” in an interview with TVE.

Couple from the USA become first positives in Menorca for 48 days
More than 10,000 German tourists are visiting the Balearic Islands between the 15th and 30th June.

Much has been written this last two weeks about the fears of regional governments that the resumption of external flights and opening of borders would provoke a rash of “imported “ Covid cases.

A young Balearic born couple who habitually live in the United States became the first positive cases of  Covid-19 on the island of Menorca in 48 days this week.

 The couple travelled to Menorca from the United States on Tuesday, June 16th, flying into Barcelona, then catching the sleeper ferry to the Balearic Islands and since then they have been quarantined in a family-owned apartment.

The man experienced Covid symptoms on Sunday and contacted the 061 emergencies number. UVAC teams collected samples from the pair and PCR swab tests yielded positive results for Covid-19, despite the woman being asymptomatic (showing no symptoms). The couple are still isolated in the apartment and are being monitored by UVAC teams. Click for full article

Canary Islands will simulate covid outbreak to test new tracing app

On Tuesday the Spanish cabinet approved a 330,537 euros contract with Indra to design, develop and evaluate a pilot test of a tracking application via mobile phone that will notify a user's contacts of the risk of contracting Covid-19 which will be tested by simulating infections on the Canary Island of La Gomera.

This pilot test is being run by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, in coordination with the Canary Islands Health Service, and will be evaluated from June 29th on the island of La Gomera in a 2 week trial.

Its technology is based on " bluetooth " mobile connections and the objective of the trial is to evaluate the technical aspects of the application and user's experience in order to optimize its design and the degree of confidence it offers. It will also serve to calibrate the algorithm of the application in order to guarantee the veracity of the notifications.

The decision on whether this application will be implemented in the rest of Spain will be taken once the pilot test has been completed and evaluated in a real scenario. The final decision will be taken by the autonomous communities.

Click for full article

UK and Spain in negotiations to create tourism green corridor

On Saturday Spain removed the 14 quarantine requirement for British travellers, some of whom were arriving on Sunday!

The Spanish government confirmed that British tourists would be allowed to enter Spain without undergoing a 14 day quarantine period, the same conditions applied to citizens of EU member states and Schengen countries.
All those arriving by air would be required to undergo a temperature test, provide contact details to enable health services in the respective regional communities to contact them should the need arise and finally undergo a visual examination to ensure that there are no visible signs of Covid positives entering the country, but no further tests would be undertaken.

There was an expectation that the UK Government would reciprocate, but all week there has been no movement from the UK.

Covid testing in Spanish airports described as a joke by Madrid politician:

On Sunday the first international flights landed in Spain as the country re-opened for tourist visitors, with 100 flights landing nationwide.

There are mixed emotions here about this situation. There is relief; some passengers were re-united with family members after being trapped in the UK for months by the Covid outbreak, happy to be back on Spanish soil and with their families and able to return to their homes in Spain.

There is excitement; the business community and particularly the hostelry sector is relieved that a trickle of customers will alleviate the severe financial strain caused by the Covid crisis lockdown.

There is anxiety; many residents fear the influx of foreign visitors from areas which have higher cases than their own. Here in the Murcia Region for example, only 1.6% of the population has tested positive for Covid-19 following a two stage mass testing programme, a strict 10 week lockdown successfully protecting the local population which has recorded the lowest number of cases and deaths of mainland Spain. But the opening of internal and external borders removes that control from the hands of the regional authorities and locals must now take responsibility for protecting themselves on their own shoulders and exercise extreme caution as the influx of visitors, some of whom could be potentially carrying the virus, begins.

And anger; The Community of Madrid describes as 'a joke' the 'triple control' of tourists at the Barajas airport

There has been considerable dissatisfaction in some areas of the country about the controls being implemented in airports to check incoming foreign tourists and the decision to allow UK nationals to enter the country without a Covid test when case numbers remain high in the UK.

The Madrid government has been the most vocal, with Barajas Airport handling more than 61 million passengers a year, the lack of controls in the airports becoming the umpteenth point of friction between the Government of the Community of Madrid and that of Spain.

The Spanish Government maintains that the 'triple control' established at Spanish airports is sufficient to detect if a traveller arrives with coronavirus,(temperature test, filling in a contact form and visual examination) but the Madrid regional governmment maintains that further measures are needed.

In a Tweet on Sunday the vice-president and spokesman for the regional Executive, Ignacio Aguado, described the controls established to be "a joke" .

"Today Barajas Airport opens with absolutely insufficient sanitary controls: filling out a form, taking a temperature ( 40% of people with Covid-19 do not have fever or symptoms) and visual inspection (in case you have the coronavirus on your forehead) A joke, "Aguado wrote on his Twitter profile.

King and Queen of Spain visiting every region to support post-Covid recovery
The King and Queen of Spain have begun a series of visits to every autonomous region of Spain to support the recovery of the country now that the Covid lockdown has been lifted, focusing on social, economic and cultural aspects as well as meeting local residents.On Tuesday the first destination on the list was the Canary Islands, Spanish media quick to point out that the dress worn by the Queen had come from high street store Zara and was currently available half price in the sale!!!!. Click for article

Other travel news

Corvera airport ready to resume flights from 1st July: Click for full article

Ryanair was the first airline to land at Corvera when the airport first opened and will be the first to resume services on 1st July; the first flight out of the airport is to Manchester at 17:55 courtesy of Ryanair.

On the 2nd July Ryanair offers two flights; Palma de Mallorca (14.40), and Dublín (21.20), then on the 3rd resumes flights to Glasgow (19.40).

Jet2 and Easyjet are both also scheduled to resume flights in July.

Spanish airline Volotea resumes its connection with Oviedo and opens a new route to Bilbao on 4th July; Binter begins its routes to Tenerife North and Gran Canaria on the 6th.

Passengers must wear masks when inside the installations.

New routes for Corvera airport being studied: Volotea studies new routes to connect Corvera with Galicia, Cantabria, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. The airline, which a year ago began flying to the Murcia Region from Asturias, will open its new Bilbao route on July 4th. The company's intention for next year is to extend the season for these flights, which now operate three months a year to seven months.

10 irregular immigrants detained after landing on Águilas beach: A boat containing 10 illegal immigrants managed to reach the Aguilas coastline close to the border with neighbouring Almería in the early hours of Monday morning without being detected out at sea.
The boat was spotted on the beach of Playa de la Carolina and the police alerted by phone just before 06.00.

The ten, all from Algeria, were tested for Covid-19 using PCR swab tests and were then transferred to  Lorca local police station for onward transfer to an immigrant transit centre where attempts will be made to repatriate them to their country of origin. However, one of the arrivals tested positive for Covid-19 and as a result 23 police officers from different forces in Lorca and Águilas were quarantined, having had close contact with the new arrivals.

European Commission working to create a new EU pact to close frontiers, expel irregular migrants and restore European unity on migration

One of the most divisive issues to challenge EU unity has been migration and since the 2015 migration crisis the EU has been preparing plans to re-establish unity in the Schengen area by re-enforcing border control and expelling larger numbers of irregular migrants.
The plan has been drawn up by Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas and Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

Frontex border control
One of the key aims of the pact is to prevent irregular migration, and the scale of activity by the European Border Agency (Frontex), is being increased significantly.
Frontex will control its own 10,000 strong police force, the first 265 of which have now been selected and are in training, with a further 400 to follow in September.

The Agency plans to operate its own surveillance resources which CEO Fabrice Leggeri expects to be financially supported in the new EU budgetary framework (2021-2027), currently under negotiation, increasing surveillance and supplying a task force which can offer mobile support where required.

Increasing expulsions
The pact also aims to speed up and improve the expulsion procedures for those who have entered the European Union irregularly.

At the moment only an average of 36% of expulsion orders are executed throughout the EU, which leaves tens of thousands in an irregular situation every year on Community territory.

In Spain this means that thousands of migrants who manage to complete the dangerous crossing by small boats from Africa are able to remain in Spain, albeit as “sin papeles” or illegals, but without any right to work or legally make a living.

This results inevitably in exploitation, migrants disappearing beneath the vast sprawling plastic plantations in Almería where they work in conditions which would be unacceptable to native agricultural workers in extreme heat, undertaking the jobs which nobody else is willing to do, although the Spanish authorities vigorously deny that this is happening.

Many more disappear into the cities and assist drivers in parking their vehicles in return for a tip, regardless of whether this service is required or not, or hawk fake branded goods in street markets on paseos, gathering up their stock at lightning speed into a blanket and disappearing each time a police patrol appears on the scene.

It’s nothing more than a half life, yet thousands are willing to take extreme risks in order to achieve it.

The European Commission wants to overcome the objections of Poland and Hungary to a migration pact and seek instead a “mandatory solidarity effort”. Partners will be able to collaborate not only by welcoming asylees but through other formulae, such as the contribution of human or material resources and aid programmes.Spain has fought to stay outside of the structure, as it is unwilling to take in any more EU refugees when it has its own issues to deal with on the coast.

Economy:

Sales are underway! Sales began today, with lots of bargains on offer as shops attempt to recover their losses!

ERTE temporary redundancies scheme extended until September 30th:After weeks of negotiation, agreement has finally been reached to extend the ERTE temporary redundancies scheme in Spain until September 30th. A good part of the conditions in force until now, especially for workers, will remain.
The hostelry sector in particular is still pushing for the ERTE scheme to be extended until the end of the year, given the difficulties that face the sector due to the Covid crisis. Click for article

Spanish Government preparing aid package for airlines
It will take years for air travel to recover to current levels even if the Covid virus is brought under control swiftly.
On Thursday the Minister for Transport and Mobility, José Luis Ábalos, announced that the Government is finalizing a specific aid plan for Spanish airlines in order to help them deal with the crisis by guaranteeing their liquidity and solvency. Click for article

The Bank of Spain warned this week that the Spanish economy could fall close to 20% in the second quarter of this year, the biggest drop ever recorded due to the Covid shutdowns.

Other news:

Four hospitalised after car leaves the road in Alhama de Murcia: Click for the article

17 year old saved from drowning in la Manga del Mar Menor: The incident was on the Mediterran beach of Entremares

Hot trek for Moratalla rescue services. The council has decided to close all municipal bathing pools for safety reasons (Covid) and bathers are instead choosing to go to the natural springs and pools in the mountains, so when they have an accident, as occurred on Sunday, it's a hot, long trek down mountain paths for those who have to recue them. Click for article

2 detained after defacing Alhama de Murcia church with graffiti: Click for article

Two cut out of overturned vehicle in Torre Pacheco: Region of Murcia Emergency services rescued the two occupants of a vehicle which left the road and overturned in the Torre Pacheco municipality just before 9 am on Monday morning. Click for article

Driver of 40 ton lorry found to be 5 times over the limit after overturning his lorry and colliding with another in Archena: Click for article

Body of missing Cartagena diver found in Ibiza:The body had floated 220 kilometres before it was spotted by a yacht 25 miles from the Ibiza coastline: DNA tests are to be carried out on the body of a diver found floating in the water 25 nautical miles from the coast of Ibiza by a pleasure yacht which is believed to be that of a 29 year old diver who went missing in Cartagena on May 30th.

The body, in an advanced state of decomposition, was spotted on Saturday, and was initially sent to the Instituto de Medicina Legal de Ibiza in an attempt to identify the deceased.

After confirming that there were no local divers missing, the search was widened, and databasing police records, the Balearic island authorities discovered that the body of a diver who went missing in Cartagena had never been found.

The diver was still wearing the neoprime suit and flippers worn at the time of his disappearance, which matches those described by his family, and there is now little doubt that this is indeed the body of 29 year old Pascual, who disappeared whilst harpoon fishing with a snorkel off the coast of Escombreras, in Cartagena.

The body will be returned to Murcia for formal DNA testing and identification.

ARQUA sub-aquatic archaeology museum in Cartagena closed for filtration repairs: The Arqua, Spain’s national underwater archaeology museum in the port of Cartagena, is to close its doors to visitors for a further five months due to problems of seawater seeping into the building on account of deficiencies in the construction which some sources are attributing to budget cuts prior to its completion in 2008. Click for article

Night fishing permitted on Los Alcázares beaches: Click for info

Busy Noche de san Juan; Busy night of san Juan for emergency services in spite of bonfire prohibitions: Emergency Services had a busy Noche de san Juan as in spite of the attempts of local councils to prevent crowds gathering due to the Covid risk, many local residents held family parties and enjoyed their normal gatherings regardless, the result being 185 call-outs and 241 calls.
Nearly half of the calls related to fires, although there was a good smattering of unruly neighbours, drunken behaviour, burning bins and gathering of groups which exceeded the group size permitted.
The busiest municipality was Cartagena, in which the Mayoress had specifically prohibited bonfires.
In spite of the ban, firemen were called out 33 times in the municipality, with 18 fires in scrubland or vegetation, 13 burning bins and one palm tree on fire. Click for full article

Marijuana plantation found in Totana second hand car sales unit.  The strong smell of marijuana lead police to the plantation. The man will also face charges for illegally tapping into an electic supply, pulling the equivalent of the use of ten houses to feed the planatation. Click for article

11 Outdoor swimming pools to open for the summer in Murcia city municipality: Click for list of pools

Los Alcázares outdoor pool and sports centre re-open on July 1st: Click for article

Mar Menor

  Study says agricultural nitrate use around the Mar Menor must be reduced by 80 percent

It would then take 18 years for the nitrate contamination in the body of water beneath the Campo de Cartagena to recover from its current levels of pollution.

Media coverage about the complicated situation relating to the current deterioration of the Mar Menor has this week focused on the topic of contamination of both the lagoon itself and the extensive body of water which lies beneath the Campo de Cartagena which is what’s known as a quaternary aquifer.

A quaternary aquifer lies between bedrock and the earth's surface and is a zone of saturated water. When water infiltrates into the ground it passes through (unsaturated)layers of earth, which are highly permeable filtering through to the saturated zone, which is full of water. The boundary between the saturated zone and the unsaturated zone is called the water table. The water table moves up and down depending on how much water is in the aquifer. As aquifers are directly connected to the surface, they are constantly re-filled via water seeping down through the soil, (or in this case, from the Mar Menor as well) so are prone to external contamination.

There are three aquifers below a vast area stretching inland from the Mar Menor and across into the Alicante province; the Carrascoy Triassic aquifer, the Victorias Triassic aguifer and the Campo de Cartagena aquifer, by far the largest which borders with the Mar Menor and has multiple layers, formed in successive geological periods.

In the case of the aquifer below the campo de Cartagena, the principal polluter is agricultural fertilisers which contain nitrates.These nitrates are contained within the run-off water which seeps through the topsoil layers and back into the aquifer, polluting the body of water which lies beneath the surface and which is in turn extracted legally by agriculturalists with licences to undertake irrigated farming.

Historically, there has been a significant problem with the agricultural sector illegally drilling wells, extracting the water, which is saline, desalinating it for agricultural use, tipping the brackish water which is the waste product generated by desalination into water run-offs (desalination generates 70% of usable water and 30% of salt and nitrate laden waste) which in turn either filter back down through the topsoil to the aquifer or run into the Mar Menor. The water generated is then used to irrigate crops, enriched with agricultural fertilisers containing nitrates. These then leach into the soil and into the aquifer. The scale of this activity is vast and the quantities of chemicals leaching into the aquifer has caused significant contamination.

Another problem has been the drilling of deep wells into the lower layers of the aquifer to reach the older water, which is not saline. As many wells have been badly drilled, and the chambers not sealed, saline water (containing nitrates) has seeped down from the upper levels to contaminate these deep water reserves, and the problem has been exacerbated by some agriculturalists tipping the saline brine generated by desalination back down into some of the deepest wells to get rid of it so that their illegal desalinating processes remain undetected (or with the full knowledge of the CHS in other cases it transpires!).

Leaching of nitrates into the Mar Menor is believed to be the principal cause of the increased algal growth which can be clearly seen this summer and is likely to spread further as the weather warms up, but the other issue caused by the use of the nitrates is, as mentioned above, the contamination of the aquifer itself and this has been the principal topic of this week.

The nitrate concentration of the Campo de Cartagena quaternary aquifer is around 200 mgNO3 / l (milligrams of nitrates per litre). This level is well above the optimal values recommended by the scientific community, which are around 50 mgNO3 / l.

Spain is subject to legislation from the European Commission which aims to protect water bodies from nitrate pollution and any measurement exceeding 50 mgNO3 / l is a breach of Nitrates Directive 91/676/EEC.

Spain is currently subject to infringement proceedings for non-compliance with Nitrates Directive 91/676, because it exceeds that threshold in many bodies of water, including the aquifer beneath the Campo de Cartagena, infringement procedure No 2018/2250 initiated by the European Commission in 2018 explicitly stating that in the Region of Murcia, "additional or reinforced measures must be taken and additional measures are needed.

The Region of Murcia is obliged by European law to also draw up and apply Codes of Good Agricultural practices in areas which are vulnerable to nitrate contamination and this has been done in the region in both 1998 and 2003, but have not been enforced as per the legislation. Failure to do this is being laid at the feet of a former regional head of agriculture and water who is now being investigated as part of a criminal investigation against farmers who drilled illegal wells as well as other bodies deemed not to have complied with the European and Spanish legislation including the CHS and regional government (caso Topillo).This case is currently being investigated by the Court of Instruction number 2 in Murcia, by magistrate Ángel Garrote, and once investigations have been completed will recommend whether the public prosecution offices should initiate criminal charges against the many companies and individuals involved. It is highly complex.

In 2018 the Regional Government of Murcia passed the Law of Urgent Measures for the Mar Menor, part of which included the division of the Campo de Cartagena into three zones, level 1 being nearest to the lagoon and the area in which agricultural activity should be most restricted.Since then a process has been underway to identify the agriculturalists illegally extracting and irrigating, confirming with the CHS that they have no licences and then shut down their illegal desalination plants and return the land to its former status,ie in many cases, as non-irrigated land, starting with the urgent zone 1 parcels. These agriculturalists are all under criminal investigation within the caso Topillo, but it is only now that the regional government has finally been able to complete all of these processes and start shutting down the illegal activity.

The law is NOT attempting to shut down agriculture, but instead find mechanisms by which agricultural activity, recognised as being a major economic contributor to the area, can be compatible with the environment.

So the law also prohibits the use of highly soluble and potentially polluting fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate and urea, and will permit the use of desalination plants, as long as proper systems are put in place to control the disposal of the nitrate and salt laden waters.

In 2019 the Ministry of Ecological Transition published a public consultation to update the catalogue of nitrate-polluted waters in Spain.

The latest report produced by the Ministry for Ecological Transition states that in the 2018/19 hydraulic year, 4,111 kilos of nitrates per DAY, a total of 1575 tons, entered the Mar Menor via agricultural run-off.

The aquifers are directly controlled and managed by the CHS, Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura, which itself answers to the Ministerio para la transición ecológica y el reto demográfico of the Spanish state and has carried out an extensive study relating to the aquifer which is currently on public display until 29th June.

CHS answered criticism in the media this week

This week the CHS has put out a document answering various points made in the media about the report and aquifer, saying that the aquifer is considered as being “unhealthy” if a single checkpoint exceeds the 50 mgNO3 / l level, as a body of water is rated for the worst value it presents in its official network.

There are 18 measuring stations monitoring the composition of the aquifer.

”The CHS says that, “both the Segura Hydrographic Confederation and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge are undertaking precise actions to curb the deterioration of the groundwater mass of the Campo de Cartagena and to reverse the situation”.

The CHS wants to declare this body of water “at chemical risk”, a process that is already underway and the regional government has been aware of the nitrates problem in the aquifer for literally decades, having declared the aquifer “a vulnerable area to nitrate contamination of agricultural origin” as far back as 2001, yet continuing to allow the widescale continuance of nitrate-driven agriculture for almost 20 years, virtually unchecked.

This has started to change since the lagoon literally turned green in 2016 due to the high level of nitrates, bringing the matter to the attention of the wider public. Since then several protest platforms have been formed; pacto por el Mar Menor, SOS Mar Menor, and others, all calling for change and for measures to be taken to prevent the further degredation of the lagoon as well as prevent damaging agricultural practices.

Study by Valencia University published this week

This week the Pacto por el Mar Menor protest group published a study by the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Institute of Water and Environment Engineering prepared by researcher Miguel Ángel Pérez Martín.

This study says that there must be an overall reduction in nitrogen pressure on the aquifer of 80% in order to reverse the current levels of pollution, which in turn would lead to a regeneration of the body of groundwater under the Cartagena area in a period of approximately 18 years.

Any reduction below that level would not be compatible with the recovery of the aquifer, although the researcher believes that limiting the use of nitrates in agricultural activity would even lead to significant reductions in the first and second year in terms of nitrate concentration as "the contributions of surface water during episodes of rain which generate water and sediment contain a significantly smaller amount of nitrogen" (ie, rainfall would dilute existing contamination).

At the moment this subject is highly topical as the regional government draft bill for the comprehensive protection of the Mar Menor has been prominent in the news this week, particularly relating to the proposal to create a strip of land around the shores of the Mar Menor which would be “nitrate free”, thus preventing the agricultural sector from using chemicals or artificial irrigation in this area.

The original proposal by the regional government was for this strip to be 500 metres wide, but this week the Ciudadanos party has decided to support an initiative first put forward by the PSOE party, that the strip be widened to 1500 metres.

Ciudadanos backs 1500 metre nitrate -free strip around the Mar Menor

One of the key points within the draft bill that has caused a great deal of political debate and argument relates to one of the points mentioned above, namely the proposal to prohibit the use of fertilisers in agricultural activity within a 500 meter fringe surrounding the lagoon.

The PP proposed a fringe of 500 metres as being sufficient, and in December the PP and Ciudadanos regional coalition government approved the text which included a margin of 500 meters.

This report adds its voice to that of other scientists who believe that the strip should be 1500 metres wide, arguing that by doing so an area of 1,400 hectares would be nitrate free, whereas limiting the strip width to 500 meters would only affect the control of 127 hectares. "Increasing the width of the strip from 500 to 1,500 meters means practically multiplying the area affected by the limitation by 10, which can contribute substantially to reducing the contribution of nutrients to the lagoon" and would avoid the eutrophication process, reports the scientist .

He also believes that "the maximum amount of total nitrogen use per hectare a year in the Campo de Cartagena area should be clearly and explicitly incorporated," into the new legislation, a figure that he believes should be 170 kgN / ha / year (kilograms of nitrogen per hectare and year).

Agricultural sector in denial

The agricultural sector, meanwhile, is bitterly opposed to any such restrictions and this week has put forward its own list of 24 points which it would like to see amended in the proposed legislation, one of which is that the fringe of 500 metres of “nitrate free agriculture” be removed from the proposed legislation altogether, ie there be no restricted farming area at all.They say that “in practice, the prohibition of all types of fertilizers, manures or green manure is a limitation that prevents the development of professional agricultural activity in this area “.

They have commissioned their own study from the UPCT by Victoriano Martínez, professor of Agroforestry Engineering and director of the Transfer and Sustainability Chair at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena which concludes that agricultural activity along the shores of the Mar Menor is compatible with its conservation.

The Polytechnic study considers that the legislation points the finger at irrigation as the main pollutant via irrigated agriculture, but criticizes that it does not take into account or minimize other activities that have also played their part in the deterioration of the ecosystem. However, it does accept that irrigation has made "an important contribution to the environmental problems of the Mar Menor".

The Irrigation Community of the Campo de Cartagena presented its package of 24 amendments to the bill on behalf of their members to the five parliamentary groups represented in the Regional Assembly, the 24 points basically a denial that agriculture has played any part in the deterioration of the lagoon.

One of the main points made in their document claims that the preamble of the bill focuses on the origin of the deterioration of the Mar Menor "mainly" in irrigated agriculture, but "minimizes" the pressures and impacts that other activities have had on the lagoon, including tourism, industry and urban planning, so in other words, too much blame is being attributed to the agricultural sector and not enough to the other elements which have contributed to the deterioration of the lagoon; “ in the coastal strip, regardless of its width, agricultural activity is not the main one, since the occupation is dominated by residential urbanization, nautical, leisure and tourism activities, services, and natural and riparian wetlands ”, they say.

They are also unhappy about text within the bill alleging that their activity of drilling illegal wells and dumping the brackish saltwater back into the underground aquifer has contributed to a deterioration in the quality of water in the underground aquifer. The text they want removed states.”After the 1995 drought, the start-up of groundwater drilling plants started the proccess of discharging brines with high concentrations of nutrients . These residues ended up in the drainage network and in the quaternary aquifer”.
The irrigators say that the extraction of subterranean water provides a "zero nitrate balance" on the Mar Menor and have demanded that the text be removed from the bill.

They also demand that the article in the bill stipulating that the soil be restored to its natural or rain-fed state be abolished, as returning the ground to its original condition would generate "a greater number of runoffs, more erosion and dragging of sediments and residues." (Last week the regional government instituted further orders for parcels to be restored to their original condition as part of the criminal proceedings against the agricultural sector.)

Which of course, has also contributed to the pollution of the aquifer, without which the agricultural sector could not survive.

Background information about this complex topic can be found by clicking here

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