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article_detail
Date Published: 04/08/2020
ARCHIVED - Reforestation plan to minimize runoff in the Mar Menor
The regional Government is seeking state support to re-landscape the agricultural exclusion zone around the Mar Menor
At the moment the Mar Menor has been holding its own against the algal growth which threatened to overwhelm it earlier this spring, the removal of tons of algae by hand helping to limit its spread. The Ed. went swimming in the Playa Paraiso area last week with a full face-mask on and was relieved to see the water clear in this particular area, and sea grass growing in the sand beneath the water, although the tell-tale filaments of algal growth were clearly visible swimming past a depth of 1.5 metres.
With a new heatwave set to reach us on Wednesday, rising water temperatures could start to change the outlook, but for the moment it’s a joy to be back in the warm waters, although sad to see the beaches so empty and the chiringuitos virtually deserted.
There have been several recent developments in the long-term battle to resolve the issues faced by the lagoon, central to which is the agreement of the Mar Menor Protection Plan which aims to start tackling some of the issues causing the problems from their base level, although this is just one small element of what needs to be done over a prolonged period of time.
One of the first base elements agreed was to prevent the use of chemical agricultural fertilisers within a 1.5 kilometre strip around the lagoon, but although this will go some way to helping the aquifer below the Campo de Cartagena to recover from nitrate pollution, will leave the urbanisations around the lagoon vulnerable to muddy run-offs and erosion.
Nobody wants to see a strip of weed and rubbish-clogged unkempt land around the lagoon, so controlling this area and ensuring that it is re-landscaped to create natural barriers to erosion as well as a visually acceptable landscape and environment is going to be a major job.
On Monday the regional Minister of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and the Environment, Antonio Luengo, held a videoconference with the Spanish Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, to discuss the current issues relating to the Mar Menor as well as various projects and initiatives to support its recovery.
One of these is the 'Plan Hidrológico Forestal y de actuaciones de urgencia en la cuenca vertiente del Mar Menor', ( the Forest Hydrological Plan and emergency actions in the watershed of the Mar Menor'), which is basically a plan using forest-hydrology to minimize the effects of water runoff on the Mar Menor itself and the municipalities surrounding it.
Luengo said that the measures included within the plan aim to address soil erosion and desertification, include protection against the risk of floods, the dredging of contaminated sediments, regulation of water flow, planting and maintenance of protective vegetation, and measures against soil deterioration.
The plan aims to recover and plant forest areas, replant vegetation in and alongside ramblas and ramblizos; reforest the margins of livestock routes after demarcation and marking; the promotion of the change of use from agricultural to forestry, which favors the "foothills" and the creation of wetlands and green filters in areas close to the Terrestrial Maritime Public Domain, as well as the construction of hydraulic works to cushion the effects produced during heavy episodes of rain.
The regional administration has been working on the plan for several months and in October the plan will be submitted to the Department of the Environment for an environmental impact study, after which the necessary planning approvals and licences can be sought.
The plan has an implementation period of 15 years and the proposed actions within it will cost an estimated 392 million euros, money which will be sought from regional, state and European sources, possibly the Feader, Feder, Life, etc. funds, the Murcian Government requesting the collaboration of the national Government to co-finance this project and find the necessary money to bring the plans to fruition.
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