The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment has authorized a transfer of 20 cubic hectometres (Hm3) of water for this month of February, through the Tajo-Segura aqueduct, in order to meet the water needs of the catchment basins.
This volume guarantees all the water supplies of the basin, as well as the supply of 2.5 million people in the provinces of Murcia, Alicante and Almería.
This transfer, which is now published in the Official State Gazette, is authorized in compliance with current regulations and in accordance with the proposal made by the Central Commission for the Operation of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct.
This body, responsible for strictly applying the rules for the operation of this infrastructure, has taken into account the exceptional situation (level 3) in which the main reservoirs are located when fixing the quantity to be transferred in order to ensure a balance between Current needs of users and guarantee of water supply in the coming months, taking into account foreseeable inputs.
CLEAR MECHANISM OF APPLICATION OF THE TRANSFER SET BY LAW
The report of the Central Commission for the Operation of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct is in line with the operating rules set out in Royal Decree 773/2014, which defines a clear mechanism of application based on the volume stored in the reservoirs of Entrepeñas And Buendía (in the provinces of Guadalajara and Cuenca), received water contributions, baseline consumption values ​​and disbursements needed to service the basin.
According to the transitional regime provided for in the Environmental Assessment Law, in 2017, transfers are legally possible as long as the Tajo headland reserves (Entrepeñas and Buendia) are not below the threshold of 368 hm3.
On 1 February these reservoirs stored a total of 422.7 hm3 of water.
