The spokesperson of the Consell, Miguel Barrachina, has explained that the Valencian Executive has sent a formal request to the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation (CHT) to obtain details about the repair works of the Tagus-Segura transfer. In addition, he has demanded that action be taken "immediately" and has asked for the operating deadlines of the aqueduct to be extended so that the water "continues to arrive beyond when the hydrological year ends."
According to what the CHT communicated this week, the Tagus-Segura transfer will remain out of service and without flow until 2027 due to the necessary actions to remedy two breaks in the infrastructure. These works are expected to last between four and five months and will involve an investment of 1.2 million euros.
The Confederation has opted to maintain the interruption of the water flow in order to avoid the "collapse" of the canal, after verifying the destruction and sinking of several concrete slabs, as well as the appearance of voids in the ground. The basin organization has indicated that the wear of the lining has been aggravated by the episodes of torrential rains recorded in the last two hydrological years.
The incidents, detected on September 14 after observing some anomalous leaks that forced the canal to be emptied, are located in the Riansares section (Almonacid de Zorita, Guadalajara) and in the Talave section (Liétor, Albacete), the latter located before the Fontanar I Hydroelectric Power Station.
In the press conference following the plenary session of the Consell this Thursday, the councilor of Agriculture, Water, Livestock, and Fishing criticized that the repair of this "indispensable" infrastructure will "take five months," a period he considers "exaggerated." "What is striking is that our farmers pay 975,000 euros monthly, almost a million euros a month for its maintenance. And the Government of Spain is not only capable of carrying out new works, but not even of maintaining the existing ones," he stated.
In this line, he denounced that during that interval "they are going to leave us without water, already previously cut back by that intention to eliminate the Tagus-Segura transfer." "Not even the current amount of water will be able to circulate due to the works," he added.
In this context, he has highlighted "the effort of our irrigators and the unfair situation that arises when the Tagus sends 11,000 cubic hectometers to Portugal and now they are trying to steal another 100 additional hectometers from the irrigators of Alicante, Murcia, and Almería so that 11,000 reach Portugal." "Water that they do not thank us for and that causes them floods," he has reproached.