Irrigators in Huelva claim not to have been informed about payment for water abstracted from the Alqueva reservoir and the international stretch of the Guadiana river. Minister confirms amount agreed with Spain.
The Minister for the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, has publicly announced that Spain will pay two million euros a year for access to water from the Alqueva reservoir. However, in statements to various media outlets, Spain has not yet confirmed the amounts announced and prefers only to stress that negotiations for the agreement between the two countries, to be signed at the end of September, are still ongoing. In the absence of official confirmation from the Spanish government, confusion has arisen and there is also doubt as to who will foot the bill.
The statements made this week by the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, guaranteeing that Spain will pay two million euros for the water abstracted from the Alqueva reservoir, have sparked a wave of doubt and uncertainty in several headlines in the Andalusian regional press. Contacted on Thursday by PÚBLICO, a source from the minister's office assured that she stands by her statements on the amount to be paid annually for the Alqueva water agreed with Spain.
However, using a reference from the Seville daily ABC, the Portuguese headline Jornal de Negócios reported on Wednesday: "Madrid denies minister: Spaniards won't pay two million for Alqueva water."
For its part, RTP asked for clarification from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco), which confirmed the existence of a pre-agreement between the two countries for the payment of Alqueva water, but did not mention any amount associated with the negotiations, which are still ongoing. The Spanish ministry only said that "a possible agreement has been reached on this situation, which will form part of the negotiations between the two countries".
The Spanish government admits, however, that this is "an atypical situation (cultivated areas in Spain with catchments in Portugal and legal titles issued by the Guadiana Hydrographic Confederation) that needs to be legally regularized, both in terms of the volume used and in terms of its economic compensation for the guarantee generated by the Portuguese reservoir".
And, without mentioning the amount agreed for this economic compensation, Miteco states that "the work teams from both ministries, who have been looking into this issue for some time, have reached a possible agreement on this situation, which the Portuguese minister referred to in her statements and which will be part of the negotiations between the two countries within the framework of the Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Agreement to be held on September 26 in Madrid."
After the meeting held in Lisbon at the beginning of July - which brought together the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, and the Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera - it was assumed by the two ministers that Portugal would be financially compensated by Spain for the water illegally abstracted over the last two decades from the Alqueva basin.
EDIA has calculated the amount of water taken directly by Spanish farmers from the Alqueva dam over the last 20 years to be 40 million euros. On July 10, Maria da Graça Carvalho announced during a hearing in the Portuguese Parliament that Spain will pay two million euros a year for the consumption of water from the Alqueva reservoir.
In fact, at that same session, the minister also said that in the three meetings she had already had with her Spanish counterpart, Teresa Ribera, it was "very clear" that Spain was interested in accounting for the debt for Alqueva's water and overcoming the "unease" generated by the illegal abstractions of the last two decades. "They're all geo-referenced and the amounts have been calculated," and they come to around "two million euros a year," which corresponds to 40 million euros over the 20 years, "which were amounts that were already circulating among the farmers of the Alentejo," Graça Carvalho confirmed at the time.
"Partial denial"
In this Thursday's edition, ABC de Sevilla speaks of a "partial denial" from Spain, pointing out that the only thing the Spanish government confirms is that the two countries are "working intensively to find a solution that is beneficial for everyone, which responds to the water needs on both sides of the border". But it notes that this goal is close. "It's more a wish of the farmers and irrigators than a promise from the ministry," even though "both the Spanish and Portuguese governments are aware that this is a long-standing problem."
For its part, continues ABC, sources in the Ministry of Agriculture have asked Miteco to provide "an explanation of where the money would come from" in relation to this or any other hypothetical agreement. What is most striking about this Andalusian headline is that the Portuguese minister specified so precisely that the signing of the agreement between the two countries would take place on September 26. The news came as a surprise to both the Andalusian government and the Andalusian irrigators' associations, who had received no guidelines or details about the agreement.
In any case, the Junta de Andalucía insists that, "in this or any other hypothetical agreement, it must be explained where the money would come from, because if it represents a burden for Andalusian farmers, the best conditions for them must be negotiated," reports ABC de Sevilla.
The president of the Huelva Provincial Council, David Toscano, welcomed the fact that "finally" the positions between Portugal and Spain are moving towards an agreement, something that "has been demanded for a long time". However, he regrets that the information he has had access to envisages "a short-term solution and not the definitive one that Huelva needs" to solve the region's water shortage.
A "possible" agreement, but no agreed value
For its part, the daily Huelva Información reports that "Portugal and Spain are close to reaching an agreement to take water from the Alqueva reservoir to Huelva", adding that Portugal "takes for granted a deal worth two million euros a year, which Miteco denies having already closed".
The newspaper points out that Maria da Graça Carvalho says that "Spain is willing to pay what it owes us for the Alqueva water", stressing that the amount agreed is not "exorbitant" for the Spanish side.
Despite this, Miteco sources "assure that this agreement is not closed and deny the payment referred to by the Portuguese ministry". In fact, they only talk about having reached "a possible agreement", points out Huelva Información.
For her part, the Minister for Development, Territorial Coordination and Housing, Rocío Díaz, from the Junta de Andalucía, stressed on Wednesday that "the terms of the agreement" between Spain and Portugal for the transfer of water from the Alqueva reservoir to the province of Huelva are still unknown. He assured that they learned about the agreement "through the media" and that they have "no official information about it", nor has Miteco contacted the Andalusian government.
The 13 irrigation communities that make up the Huelva Riega association were also "cautious" about the announcement of the agreement between Spain and Portugal, while indicating that they are waiting to see its final content in order to make an assessment, the Huelva newspaper points out.
At this stage of the process, with a view to signing the agreement between Portugal and Spain for the use of Alqueva water, there are still doubts and misunderstandings about the water that will be paid for and which is collected from the 40 direct abstractions installed in the Alqueva reservoir to serve the irrigation of Olivenza and Cheles.
However, the doubts that have proved most persistent also remain in relation to water abstraction by the Spanish in Pomarão. In other words: will only the water abstracted directly from the Alqueva reservoir be paid for? And what about the water that is illegally abstracted from the Pomarão and used to water the vegetable garden in Europe, in Huelva, will it be supplied free of charge?
There is still no clarification on the volumes of water that have already been consumed over the last two decades, both from the Alqueva reservoir and from the catchment that the Spanish have installed in Pomarão. PÚBLICO asked the Ministry of the Environment and Energy for clarification on these issues, but has so far received no reply.
Source: Público, 8 August 2024
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