Ombudsman launches river probe

ANDALUCIA’S Ombudsman will investigate rubbish “systematically” dumped on the banks of the River Aguas in Mojacar.
Reports in the provincial Spanish media and residents have traced the rubbish to gravel and aggregate firms that allegedly leave tons of rubble on the riverbanks.
A communique from the Ombudsman’s office referred to “possible permissiveness” on the part of the Public Administrations for tolerating the practice for years, which itself was sufficient to warrant an investigation.
The Ombudsman also announced that should an investigation confirm the presence of large quantities of rubbish this would infringe the right to a “an adequate environment” set out in Article 45 of the Spanish Constitution.
The Ombudsman’s communique arrived after the Junta’s Environment department announced that it would spend €6 million on cleaning and restoring the Aguas riverbed in Bedar, Los Gallardos and Mojacar.
Visiting Mojacar at the end of March, Environment chief Carmen Crespo said that it would be the most extensive riverbed regeneration project carried out in Almeria in recent years.
This, Crespo said, included removing rubbish from the river and its banks, eliminating invasive non-native vegetation and replacing it with 20 different species of 51,000 native plants.

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