The Government has given the green light this Tuesday to aid amounting to €20 million for eight municipalities around the Mar Menor with the aim of undertaking actions to improve the treatment of wastewater and thus reduce the pollution load that discharge into the lagoon.
The Third Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Theresa Riverarecalled in the press conference after said Council, the value of the Mar Menor, a symbolic space, which has suffered spills for decades, and which stands out for being the most important environmental recovery initiative.
According to Miteco sources, the subsidy activities include the improvement, rehabilitation or construction of new sanitation elements and improvement in purification treatments in isolated nuclei through low-cost techniques or connections with existing networks.
The direct subsidies will be distributed among the eight coastal municipalities that discharge into the lagoon: San Javier, Los Alcázares, Cartagena, San Pedro del Pinatar, Fuente Álamo, Murcia, Torre Pacheco and La Uniónaccording to a Royal Decree approved by the Council of Ministers this Tuesday.
Daily management issues
The municipalities of San Javier and Los Alcázares correspond to 3,750,000 euros; 3,500,000 euros are allocated respectively to the municipalities of Cartagena and San Pedro del Pinatar; 1,500,000 euros are for each of the town councils of Fuente Álamo, Murcia and Torre Pacheco while the consistory of La Unión receives 1,000,000 euros.
The eight beneficiary municipalities add together some 180,000 inhabitants registered and its population almost doubles during the holidays and all of them, to a different extent, present problems in the daily management of sanitation, which increase on rainy days and in episodes of heavy rainfall.
The total amount of the grants will be distributed according to the pressure they exert on the lagoon according to geographic and population criteria and will be paid immediately, charged to the budget of the Ecological Restoration and Resilience Fund.
.
