The president of the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation, Antonio Yáñez, has attributed the origin of the continuous foam in the Tagus river as it passes through Toledo to "a set of causes" and not only to purification, which according to guarantee "has improved a lot in recent years", he said yesterday at the presentation in Toledo of the IV Iberian Congress of River Restoration, Restaurarios 2023, with the Portuguese Executive, which will take place on June 21, 22 and 23 in Toledo.
"From the technical point of view, it does not respond to a specific question, but rather it is a synergy of many issues, which we know more or less at a technical level and have controlled," Yáñez indicated. In his opinion, these foams not only have their origin in the purification that is done in Madrid, "which must be improved", but also in the nutrients that they contribute to the soil, both when there is little rainfall and when it rains a lot, or the ambient temperature and of the waters.
“It is a set of causes. It is not correct only with a series of specific actions", added the president of the CHT, who asserted that purification in the context of the Tagus basin has "a lot" in recent years, to the point that " 98% of the polluting causes of water have purification«.
On the other hand, Antonio Yáñez has denounced "the systematic and progressive process of degradation suffered by basin organizations, in general, and that of the Tagus, in particular".
"This body has come to have more than 1.000 workers, but today, between officials and labor, we do not reach 415, in a context of some 56.000 square kilometers of hydrographic basin and 68.000 linear kilometers of river," he warned.
The president of the CHT has also announced how "complicated" it will be to ensure the good state of the water masses, as contemplated in the hydrological plans that will govern during the third planning cycle (2023-2027), and the Strategy National River Restoration Program (2023-2030), whose approval is scheduled for the first quarter of the year.
“If you wait at the global state of the water masses, 61 percent of the Tagus basin is in good condition. If our we refer to the good ecological state in the masses of surface water of a natural nature, that is, rivers and lakes not modified, there are 45% of this type in good state, and 16% in very good ecological state", indicated Yáñez , who has explained that the difference between good and very good condition lies in the hydromorphological state, relative to the riverside vegetation or fluvial continuity. »The hydromorphological state is the great forgotten, hence only 16% is in very good condition«. To return to these porticos, Yáñez studied the hydrological plans, which contemplated more than 600 measures, with an investment of around 3.500 million to be carried out over the next four years.
Collaboration
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) will present from June 21 to 23 in Toledo the update of the National River Restoration Strategy at the IV Iberian River Restoration Congress, Restaurários 2023, with the motto ' Horizon 2030: 7 years to promote the river restoration strategy. This was announced by the president of the Iberian River Restoration Center (Ciref), Tony Herrera, during yesterday's press call in Toledo together with the president of the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation, Antonio Yáñez, and the mayoress, Milagros Tolón.
With people related to fluvial management, research and planning, fluvial restoration experts, naturalists, fluvial conservation volunteers, communicators or people interested in fluvial recovery, approaching urban rivers and returning to fluvial restoration; flow, sediment, processes and space; riverside vegetation and fauna; environmental education, awareness, dissemination and participation; as well as governance, management and protection.
The mayoress has defended the "importance" of this discussion forum, which will become in Toledo "the center of dialogue on climate change and the role that rivers and river restoration play in this process."
In addition, he stressed that the Agreement of the City of Toledo for the Tagus has served to "agree on the contributions of the city to the Hydrological Plan, as well as to plant the resources that gave rise to the Supreme Court rulings to establish ecological flows".
"Objectives that little by little have been met and that come to endorse a change in historic trend in the management of the basin and a starting point to continue advancing in the improvement of the river," he said.
For this reason, he thanked the sensitivity of the CHT and the Ministry of Ecological Transition that, "for the first time, have responded to the call for help from the riverside municipalities for a river that is badly damaged."
