23 Jan, 2007 @ 09:27
1 min read

Junta faces private lawsuit from residents’ group

A LOCAL residents group is to take the regional government to court in a bid to stop the planned second reservoir for the Contraviesa mountain range in Spain.

La Mesa en Defensa del Agua de la Alpujara (MDAA) believes the reservoir – which has yet to be built – will destroy agriculture in the region by taking 335 million litres of water from the Trévelez river.

Local farmers believe the combination with the 450 million litre capacity of the existing reservoir, the Trevélez river will run dry.

Local winemaker José Marcos – who is set to lose 28,000 square metres of EU funded organic vines if the seven-million-euro project goes ahead – presented the contencioso adminstrativo private lawsuit to judges in Granada after the MDAA met with Junta provincial environment chief Gerardo Sánchez on January 19.

An MDAA spokeswoman said: “We voiced our concerns to Señor Sánchez but he said the local farmers would have to install counters on their acequias (water irrigation channels) and use water sparingly.”

The regional government has said it is constructing the reservoir to guarantee a water supply to 15,000 residents of the Contraviesa. However, the MDAA believes sufficient water for the mountain range is stored in the existing reservoir.

News of the lawsuit comes two weeks after the Green Party of Andalucía launched their own legal order against the Junta de Andalucía, claiming water from the second reservoir will be destined for plastic greenhouses and illegal building. Gerardo Sánchez denied the Greens’ claims.

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Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.

After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.

On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.

This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.

After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.

After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.

As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.

He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.

He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Contact jon@theolivepress.es

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