WRITTEN QUESTION E-0839/97 by Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL), Laura González Álvarez (GUE/NGL) and María Sornosa Martínez (GUE/NGL) to the Commission (10 March 1997)

Subject: Alarming fall in the level of the water table in Murcia, Spain

In recent years, various buildings and monuments in the central part of Murcia have developed cracks and residents in the area fear that this will cause them to collapse. A total of 5000 people in the city live in buildings which have been damaged by this natural phenomenon.

A number of studies have been carried out and the results thereof confirm that the fall in the level of the water in the subsoil is creating serious problems affecting the foundations of the buildings. This fall is essentially due to a rainfall shortage in recent years, a shortage which is part of the structural drought which has affected the Murcia region and, indeed, the whole of southern Spain over the last ten years.

In view of the fact that Murcia is the only city in the world to be affected by a fall in the level of the water table, could the Commission answer the following questions?

1. Is the Commission aware of the situation?

2. What action is it planning to take with a view to having a comprehensive study of the situation carried out in order to establish appropriate legislation applicable to this particular case?

3. Does it not consider there to be an urgent need for a set of measures to be adopted by local and regional authorities in order to help the people affected by this phenomenon?

4. What action has it taken in order to protect groundwater following the Council resolution of 20 February 1995 on the protection of groundwater?

5. To what extent can the Interreg II C draft Community initiative for the Murcia region, which has recently been submitted by Spain, help to relieve the problem?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (5 May 1997)

The Commission has not received any information about the falling groundwater table in Mucia from the Spanish Government and has not been made aware of this question through other sources. No Community legislation aims at dealing with natural phenomena such the one referred to by the Honourable Members.

The Spanish Government sent the Commission the draft operational programme entitled 'Regional planning and the fight against drought' Interreg II C (Objective 1) 1997/1999 on 6 February 1997. The draft directly addresses the Honourable Members' concerns since it recognizes the 'growing overexploitation of numerous, in particular subterranean, water ressources in a large number of hydrological basins' in Spain.

This is why it considers, among other provisions, a set of specific measures to 'evaluate, manage and monitor the overused watertables'. These measures are currently being drafted and will shortly be spelt out. They involve, on a priority basis and using the most suitable means, the protection and conservation of existing aquifers, and hence making better use of water resources (particularly for irrigation which accounts for 80% of consumption) and the modernisation of distribution networks and their management in order to avoid excessive losses (out of every 100 m3 used, only 47 m3 reaches its destination in irrigated areas).

These measures may also demand more selectiveness in the use of new techniques, particularly desalination, which should preferably be carried out using seawater and not water from the saline aquifers.