Portal de Cartagena

www.portaldecartagena.com

• Home
• Business
• Hotels
• Restaurants
• News
• Advertisement

To these figures must be added a decrease of 20.6% in the nitrate concentration in the wells measured in the quaternary aquifer, reaching a value of 88.8 mg / liter. There is a nitrification problem in the Mar Menor, which has nothing to do with the current precision irrigation of Campo de Cartagena, a precision agricultural model that does not generate surpluses. According to experts, one of the main threats today is the low salinity of the Mar Menor - with figures that have never been recorded, could augur new episodes of anoxia - as well as the high volume of nutrients that reach the ecosystem.

That is why the recent figures published by the Regional Government's Ministry of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Environment take on special importance.

These results point to a decrease in the concentration of nitrates in the soil of Campo de Cartagena, specifically 17% in 2018 and 35% in 2019.

This shows the good performance of the measures that are being carried out, since it is a trend marked by a sustained decline. To these figures, in addition, we must add the data provided by the Segura Hydrographic Confederation and relating to the month of January 2020.

These provide figures that indicate a 20% decrease in the concentration of nitrates in the wells measured in the quaternary aquifer, reaching a value of 88.8 mg / liter. There are several sectoral voices that point to the need to know the results of the technical and scientific reports on the evolution of the volume of nitrates in the aquifer, with which the Segura Hydrographic Confederation has, in order to assess the real effectiveness of the measures that for years have been carried out in origin and to be able to qualify or reorient them in case they were not sufficiently effective. Work on solutions at the source to generate long-term solutions For years, the agricultural sector has adapted to incorporate a series of measures that help from the beginning to protect the health of the Mar Menor.

Some of these actions have a direct impact on reducing the application of nutrients, improving fertilization, optimizing irrigation with humidity sensors, limitations in manure management and movement, or measures to reduce soil intensification , limiting the number of crops per unit area and, on the other hand, favoring plant covers that reduce bare soil due to the risks of erosion and leaching. In addition, several of the eight strategic projects approved in November 2019 have already been started, such as the removal of biomass, the monitoring of the ecosystem, the species bank and the bank of native filter feeders, and they are in an advanced stage of processing.

bioreactor projects to denitrify water, oxygenation tests, coastal soundings and the rehabilitation of the Marchamalo Salt Flats.

Not forgetting the start-up since last May of the pumping of the Rambla del Albujón to prevent the entry of fresh water and nutrients into the Mar Menor. Legislative reinforcement to support the actions of the agricultural sector There is a problem of nitrification of the Mar Menor that is related to the groundwater that transport concentrated water of nitrates present in the aquifer, a result of the bad agricultural production practices of decades ago, as well as livestock and urban water discharges .

This has nothing to do with the current precision irrigation of Campo de Cartagena, an agricultural model based on modern and precision agriculture, which does not generate surpluses. In this sense, the agricultural sector of Campo de Cartagena is committed to the environment and the preservation of its resources.

So much so that it has one of the most restrictive regulations regarding the discharge of nitrates compared to those applied in other autonomous communities and it is clear that without an environmentally healthy environment, agricultural activity cannot be developed, because agriculture or it is sustainable or it will not be. Precisely on this problem, the new Law for the Integral Protection of the Mar Menor barely regulates and tiptoes through the rest of the activities that directly affect the Mar Menor.

Natalia Corbalán, director of the Foundation, comments in this regard: "we all know that what the Mar Menor urgently needs are actions and infrastructures that prevent the entry of water through the surface, but mainly through the underground, through the extraction of the water from the Campo de Cartagena aquifer, and also infrastructures capable of controlling the floods that will arrive with the next DANAS.

Without them it will be impossible to achieve real protection.

" Corbalán adds: "Around the summer we will have to face this serious economic crisis, with disappointing forecasts.

In this context, the restrictions of this new law and the legal uncertainty in which it places us will lead to the decline of the agricultural sector in the Region of Murcia, directly affecting the entire agri-food value chain (transporters, distributors, shops, agricultural cooperatives, mechanical workshops, dealers, recycling companies, etc.) ".

Source: Agencias