With a possible Iberian “water war” on the horizon, Spain decided to give the order to “stop the transfer of water” to Portugal, more specifically in the Duero basin, which was taking place more abruptly in recent weeks, triggering strong protests from Spanish farmers.
As reported by Público this Tuesday, the Spanish entity -the Douro Hydrographic Confederation- announced that the transfer had stopped, due to the “drastic discharge” of water that had been occurring in recent weeks.
Everything, explains the same newspaper citing the confederation, to “alleviate the discomfort and concern created” in the towns and farmers in the area, who threatened “immediate mobilizations” if the water transfers to Portugal were not interrupted. The mayors of the communities in the region had already signed a letter describing this transfer policy as “a destructive management policy” of the Spanish reservoirs.
The problem arises during the Albufeira Convention, an agreement signed by Portugal and Spain in 1998, which serves to manage the flow of the rivers shared by both countries. As Spain had not yet released enough water throughout this year to meet the agreed amount, now it was trying to compensate for these failures and making a “drastic” water transfer. For this reason, the Spanish farmers affected had been criticizing this management, asking that enough water be left in Spain to guarantee consumption, irrigation and agriculture and guaranteeing that the transfers were being excessive.
The Spanish Government guarantees that it did not take this decision as a reaction to the peasant demonstrations. No entanto, this episode seems to deal with more of an effect than the fact that El Mundo calls a possible “water war”, referring to a dispute over the water of two international rivers, at a height where Spain crosses one of the worst droughts of the his story.
Source: Observadora
