SOS Hug Around The Mar Menor Spurs Action To Stem Pollution
Thousands of residents have come out this weekend to give a symbolic hug around the Mar Menor, demanding that Spain´s largest inner sea is saved from further environmental pollution.
Spain’s Environment Minister Teresa Ribera accused the Murcian regional government of having turned a blind eye to farming irregularities in the Campo de Cartagena, an area which houses a vast number of intensive fruit and vegetable farms.
‘There is no room for complacency,’ she told reporters, indicating that 8,000 hectares of land lacked ‘adequate irrigation rights’ and were ‘illegally extracting water or using a quantity far above their allocation’.
The weekend protest included Mario Perez, the mayor of Los Alcazares as well as the mayor of Murcia, Jose Antonio Serrano.
Serrano said that: “We already support the ILP from the City Council of Murcia, because there has been a historical and eternal symbiosis between the municipality and the Mar Menor that has been passed down through the generations, because it belongs to everyone,”
“Also to those who have not yet been born, so we have to put all our eggs in the basket so that this unique lagoon in the world can be preserved with all the beauty and splendour it has always had, so we will support all initiatives to improve its environment.”