For a scarce week, Mar Menor has three tutors who will ensure their rights and protection against possible aggressionsas established by Law 19/2022 that granted legal personality to this ecosystem, which was also the first in Europe to achieve it.
The professor of Philosophy of Law and promoter of the ILP of Mar Menor, Teresa Vicente; Ecology Professor Miguel Ángel Esteve and the mayor of Los Alcázares, Mario Pérez Cervera, will be the in charge of the protection of Mar Menor.
Thus, the process that started in August 2019 culminates with a popular legislative initiative (ILP) that led 640,000 signatures to the Congress of Deputies, where it achieved the support of all political groups, With the exception of Vox, which even appealed the law before the Constitutional Court and wanted to repeal it several times.
Interview with Miguel Esteve
Although Miguel Ángel Esteve was born in Murcia Ciudad, he grew up “With the Salitre del Mar Menor in the veins”. This professor of ecology at the University of Murcia is, since last Thursday, one of the three tutors that will ensure the rights of this ecosystem, the first in Europe to obtain legal personality.
Esteve, representative of the scientific committee, will be accompanied in this mission for two tutors: the mayor of Los Alcázares, Mario Pérez Cervera, and the professor of Philosophy of Law and promoter of the Popular Legislative Initiative of Mar Menor, Teresa Vicente. This ILP collected 640,000 signatures to give rights to the lagoon, which was finally approved through a Pioneer Law in 2022 that collected the support of all parties except Vox.
Esteve jokes that now the Albufera, to which a special link joins, is his “goddaughter.” «I have been closely linked to the lagoon, there I have done the doctoral thesis. Right now I have a kind of Attack of responsibility«, He acknowledges.
A ‘novel’ step
Behind the popular initiative there was a massive support that, according to Esteve, was given as “Inaction response” of the different governments“Especially the regional”, to address the problem of albufera.
He believes that this new legal step will allow to promote protection measures. “It is to give voice to the minor without intermediaries,” he defends: “Those organisms, the mollusks, the fish, They are as Murcia as we will try to be their spokesmen », points. The lagoon will have, from now on, a NIF, a bank account in its name and a fiscal domicile, with which to be able to defend themselves in court.
The ILP, claims this expert, offers a political response beyond the action of administrations. In the governorship structure proposed by legal personality, «citizens are more involved in all structures, There is a clearer socialization of surveillance »of the ecosystem. With the campaign that achieved hundreds of thousands of signatures throughout the country, “citizens have empowered.”
A minor mar in ecological decline
But why was this mobilization necessary to save Mar Menor? To find the answer you have to go back to the year 2016, a turning point in the history of this placethe largest salt water lagoon in Europe,
Then, the lagoon, which had always been “crystal clear waters,” became a “green soup”, which caused the mortality of all the fauna and flora that lived inside. The «Overpression of agricultural activity» It supposed that the fertilizers used in the thousands of hectares of the Cartagena Campo would arrive without control to the water of this saline albufera, Esteve explains.
This generated a excess nutrients, a high “phytoplankton density” -What gave him the green color- that prevented the light from filtering through the “Púrtrida water” and reaching the bottom of the lagoon. Without light for months, 85% of underwater meadows died and their decomposition led to anoxia, the lack of oxygen, which in turn caused the death of the fauna of this rich ecosystem.
It was a “General collapse” that meant a “severe transformation of the functioning of general metabolism” Del Mar Menor. He lost the capacity for self -regulation, with “strong crisis every two years”, such as that of the 2019 DANA or the 2021 episode, which caused the massive mortality of the species that inhabit the ecosystem. «Extraordinary things, such as Aquatic fauna suicidewho jumped to the shore to die out of the water, ”recalls the UMU professor.
The problem has transcended the ecological to threaten the means of life of thousands of people in the area, from fishermen who are dedicated to tourism. Only for real estate depreciation in coastal villages, “more than 4,000 million euros have been lost”Esteve recalls, who adds: “It is not a matter of nature only, it is also a bad economic business.”
Change could be permanent
The crisis was so serious that scientists were “Scared” in case it was a permanent changein case the lagoon would never be what it was before. There is no clear response to whether this is so today, and the data is still “debatable”, but some improvement has been detected.
«There is a part of the nutrient entry that has been avoided«, With measures such as the closure of discourabers, wells and illegal crops, which has mainly promoted the central government.
The effect of these decisions is not so noticeable in the short term, but «They have facilitated that the natural mechanisms of the Laguna response are reactivated »which has allowed the ecosystem to enter a state of “balance.” “We have a minor Mar that seems that we have taken it out of the ICU and we have it in the plant, but still vulnerable,” exemplifies this scientist.
But, yes, any physical alteration, such as temperature changes or strong rains, which before the Mar Menor was able to resist, “They can be a turning back in recovery”. Therefore, a “direct surveillance” is still necessary and more measures.
Intensive and illegal irrigation was mortal
Among these necessary actions, it stands out, is “the reduction of the irrigation surface in the Campo de Cartagena”, eliminating to begin illegal crops. In this area watered by the Tajo-Segura transfer there were about 15,000 illegal hectaresand after the closures carried out by the central government in recent years, it is estimated that they are just under 10,000, according to Esteve
To this is added the impact of livestock and there are some 700,000 pork heads in the Mar Menor drainage basinhe points out. The agrarian impact is not new or unknown. Already in 2000, Esteve and other colleagues calculated the entry of nutrients into the lagoon and warned the different administrations: 85% of these came from agriculture and 15% of urban uses.
The number has not stopped growing since the impulse that the transfer gave in the 80s, moving from about 1,000 hectares of dry land before those dates to a maximum of 62,000 hectares of intensiv irrigationOr, according to this teacher. All this, in an arid climate zone with few rains.
Finding criminal responsibilities in the crisis of Mar Menor is very difficult, he acknowledges. But he believes that the Environmental Responsibility Law and the principle of “Who pollutes, pays.” «A substantial part of investments [para restaurar la laguna] They should leave the economic sector that has generated the problem, which is the agricultural sector, ”he defends.
More solutions
Another action that should be taken is Cut out the load of fertilizers per unit surface unit. Alert that there are currently “180 remaining kilos of nitrates on the ground for each hectare on the ground” of this Murcia region, which is a «Watchmaking pump permanente».
It also raises the “reticular restoration of the Cartagena Campo”, that is to sayestablish hedges and drainage systems that retained the entry of nutrients and control the erosion.
Another measure would be the recovery between about 500 and 1,000 hectares of wetlands, which are “As kidneys that extract or metabolize part of nutrients and allow them not to reach the lagoon”in addition to preventing floods.
In spite of everything that the Mar Menor has suffered in recent decades, Esteve is confident that his recovery is possible. «With good political will, Mar Menor in a few years could be recovering part of its original physiognomy and functioning »consider.