Pérez Llorca challenges Madrid over water transfers, Morocco funding, and flood defence delays
At the National Water Congress in Elche, Valencian President Juanfran Pérez Llorca criticized central government cuts to the Tajo-Segura transfer and cited a 5% completion rate for state anti-flood works in Vega Baja.
Water transfers and bilateral financing
Pérez Llorca opened the 8th National Water Congress in Elche on Friday alongside regional agriculture conseller Miguel Barrachina, Alicante provincial council president Toni Pérez, and Elche Mayor Pablo Ruz. The regional leader demanded that the central government preserve the Tajo-Segura water transfer route and halt planned modifications to operating rules that reduce transfer volumes without technical reports. He argued that a bilateral agreement between Madrid and Rabat facilitates Spanish financing for Moroccan hydraulic infrastructure, including water transfers, desalination plants, and wastewater reuse systems. Pérez Llorca contrasted this policy with domestic reductions in water allocations to southeastern Spain and water sent to Portugal.
Pérez Llorca outlined these objections during his opening address in Elche.
It makes no sense to send 6,000 cubic hectometres to Portugal that the neighbouring country neither needs nor requested, or to financially support Morocco in constructing water transfers like the one they want to destroy here.
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- Pérez Llorca addresses the 8th National Water Congress in Elche and attacks water policies
Flood prevention and infrastructure deficits
Addressing regional flood protection, Pérez Llorca reviewed infrastructure progress on the seventh anniversary of the isolated depression at high levels (DANA) that struck between 12 and 14 September 2019. That storm caused the Segura river to overflow, resulting in one fatality and severe destruction across residential areas, road networks, and agricultural fields in Vega Baja. The regional president stated that the Generalitat Valenciana has completed 72% of its scheduled anti-flood works in the comarca, whereas the central government has executed 5% of its assigned projects. He cited specific unfulfilled state commitments, including the repair of the San Diego reservoir, the Zero Discharge Project for Alicante Bay, and defensive drainage works across Vega Baja.
He criticized the central executive for lagging behind regional investment schedules.
It is frustrating to see how all the investment effort of the Generalitat is not matched by the government on pending projects such as the repair of the San Diego reservoir, the Zero Discharge Project for the Bay of Alicante, or the anti-flood works in Vega Baja.
- Generalitat Valenciana plan
- 72 %
- Central government works
- 5 %
Economic and environmental stakes
The regional administration presented economic data to defend the agricultural system dependent on the Tajo-Segura aqueduct. Annual agricultural production in the transfer basin exceeds 403 million euros, complemented by nearly 500 million euros in commercial turnover and more than 115 million euros in agro-food transformation. Pérez Llorca rejected characterizations of the water allocation as a regional privilege, describing it as essential for thousands of agricultural jobs across southeastern Spain. He added that the irrigated crops in the area absorb approximately 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. According to the Consell, these agricultural belts serve as physical barriers against desertification and wildfires.
National political strategy
The speech in Elche coincided with a broader alignment of the regional Popular Party (PPCV) with national political debates. On Thursday, València Mayor María José Catalá attributed conditions at an informal settlement on the former Formula 1 track to central migration policies, echoing regional party participation in demonstrations on 2 September regarding the Ceuta crisis. Following the congress and a plenary Consell meeting in Elche, party leaders gathered at an opening dinner in El Puig. Pérez Llorca stated that the Valencian party apparatus would dedicate its efforts to supporting national PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo in his campaign to secure the Moncloa.
