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ARCHIVED - Final victory in Mar Menor battle for personhood with ILP vote
The Mar Menor is now considered a legal person with its own rights
The Mar Menor was the scene of much celebration on Wednesday September 21 as the Congress of Deputies voted in favour of the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) and granted the lagoon legal personality status. The initial petition, which was signed by more than 600,000 people, has been instrumental in making the Mar Menor Europe’s first lagoon with its own rights.
Declaring the Mar Menor a legal person greatly increases its rights to protection, conservation and restoration. Several committees will oversee the management of the lagoon and the new legislation means that anybody can now bring a legal case against someone they believe is polluting the lagoon or damaging the ecosystem and if the court rules in their favour, all costs will be covered.
It wasn’t all good news, however, as the regional assembly vetoed the proposal that the Mar Menor be declared a regional park, arguing that the lagoon is already perfectly well protected by 19 legal figures behind it.
The decision to grant legal status to the Mar Menor wasn’t unanimous either, but most sided with the senator of the Popular Parliamentary Group Francisco Bernabé, who insisted that “it is the obligation of all the parties to solve the situation of the Mar Menor forever.”
This summer has marked a very important turning point for Europe’s largest salt-water lagoon: regular analyses show that the water quality and turbidity is recovering, while the investment in manpower and machinery to clear masses of algae has greatly improved the appearance of the coastline while at the same time reducing the risk of anoxia.
To date, more than 19,000 tonnes of algae have been removed from the water and the shore, but Mr Bernabé warned that Wednesday’s ruling must spur more action, since “fresh water loaded with nitrates continues to enter the Mar Menor at close range through a state-owned public waterways, such as the Albujón rambla.”
In addition, he has remarked that this water loaded with nitrates “continues to filter in torrents into the Mar Menor through state-owned public groundwater, such as that of the Campo de Cartagena Quaternary Aquifer; and there are state-owned public beaches where you cannot enter because they are full of mud and sludge.”
Image: ILP
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