The Association of Riparian Municipalities of the Entrepeñas and Buendía Reservoirs maintains that the recent Supreme Court ruling on the appeal by the Central Union of Irrigators of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct (Scrats) represents the "definitive closure of the judicial cycle opened against the ecological flows of the Tajo River and leaves the Ministry without arguments or political leeway to continue delaying the modification of the operating rules of the Tajo-Segura transfer," emphasizing that "action must be taken" now.
In its statement, the riparian municipalities affirm that the judicial resolution "definitively dismantles the outdated arguments used for decades by the transfer lobby and consolidates a clear legal doctrine," by establishing that ecological flows "are a prior and superior restriction to any water use, including the transfer."
According to the association, "perhaps it is the harshest ruling for the Levante from the Supreme Court, because it leaves one thing definitive and absolutely clear: the ecological flows of the Tajo are mandatory and are above the transfer," and this implies, immediately, that "the operating rules of the Tajo-Segura transfer must be changed."
"The Ministry no longer has any more excuses or leeway to continue delaying it," states the president of the Riparian Municipalities, Borja Castro, who highlights that the ruling "reaffirms that the users of the Tajo-Segura exclusively use surplus waters and that, therefore, there is no guaranteed right to these resources as long as the environmental and consultative needs of the donor basin itself are not fully met."
Castro adds that the Supreme Court also dismisses another of Scrats' traditional arguments "and confirms that there has been collusion between the Tajo and Segura basins," the riparian municipalities recall, insisting that the implementation of ecological flows "has been staggered over three years precisely to facilitate the adaptation of the receiving basin to new supply sources, such as desalination."
For the Association of Riparian Municipalities of the Entrepeñas and Buendía Reservoirs, the ruling "dismantles one by one all the legal pillars used by Scrats against the Tajo Hydrological Plan, including the allegations related to technical methodology, environmental assessment, and inter-basin coordination."
"This was the great judicial battle and the Supreme Court has settled it. Now it's time to act. From the Association of Riverbank Municipalities, we demand that the working group be convened immediately and that new rules adapted to the current legal and environmental reality be presented," concludes Castro, warning that maintaining the current exploitation rules implies perpetuating an "unsustainable" situation for Entrepeñas and Buendía.