MITECO continues to support municipalities in the Mar Menor basin to improve their sanitation systems, with a new call for €20 million.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Directorate General of Water, has released a second royal decree to provide aid to municipalities in the Mar Menor basin for complementary sanitation and treatment projects to advance the implementation of stormwater separation networks.

This Royal Decree will provide a second line of aid of up to 20 million euros, in addition to the one promoted in 2022, also with another 20 million euros, and which is currently being implemented by the eight municipalities that have received it , with more than fifty projects on their sanitation networks, which will be completed throughout this year.

This new line was one of those included in the Framework of Priority Actions to Recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM) after its update in April 2024 and increase to €675.05 million.

As in the first call, the financial distribution of aid in this second phase is as follows:

• To each of the municipalities of San Javier and Los Alcázares, 3,750,000 euros.
• To each of the municipalities of Cartagena and San Pedro del Pinatar, 3,500,000 euros.
• To each of the municipalities of Fuente Álamo, Murcia, and Torre Pacheco, 1,500,000 euros.
• To the La Unión council, 1,000,000 euros.

The proposed royal decree indicates that the current situation of the sewage system in municipalities bordering the Mar Menor presents significant difficulties in achieving adequate management of discharges, especially during periods of rainfall.

Therefore, MITECO considers it essential to improve knowledge of the sewage systems, assess their current condition and the possibilities for improvement in managing rainfall events, as well as to carry out repair and improvement actions on the sewage systems, promoting, where possible, sustainable drainage systems and the development of separate networks, all in line with Law 3/2020, of July 27, on the recovery and protection of the Mar Menor in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia.

Since the lagoon ecosystem has lost its regulatory capacity, it is essential to minimize the discharge of pollution and nutrients into the lagoon. Therefore, it is essential to urgently implement the aforementioned sanitation network improvement measures, all of this through strong coordination between the relevant administrations, as indicated in the draft royal decree.

The actions currently underway under the previous line of aid, regulated by Royal Decree 730/2022, of September 6, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, are enabling actions that will impact the reduction of pollution and nutrient discharges reaching the lagoon through improvements to the sanitation network.

However, these actions require continued funding and implementation to continue contributing to the improvement of the Mar Menor, the draft royal decree states.

The deadline for submitting documents is Tuesday, April 15.

You can access the public information document at this link: https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/agua/participacion-publica/informacion-publica-rd-subv-mar-menor.html