• They approved the new Special Drought Plan and delimited potential flood zones.

The president of the Miño-Sil River Basin Authority (CHMS), José Antonio Quiroga, convened this Tuesday the governing, participation and cooperation bodies of the demarcation to analyse various issues related to water management. They are the Governing Board, the Committee of Competent Authorities and the Auga Council. They started the public exhibition of the fourth hydrological planning cycle 2028-2033, available until 20 June 2025. The documents include the activities, deadlines and strategies necessary for the preparation of the new hydrological plan, which must be approved before the end of 2027.

With regard to the status of the demarcation, 192 surface water bodies reach good status out of the 287 delimited, i.e. 67%. As for groundwater, 22 of them have good status and two were diagnosed as poor. The degree of progress of the programme of measures in the first year of the plan is 18%, with an investment of 82 million euros to be made by 2023.

On the other hand, the Water Council approved the proposal for the new Special Drought Plan, which includes measures adapted to climate change and strategies to mitigate environmental impacts. It includes the identification of territorial units of prolonged drought and scarcity, the historical record and the impact of climate change, as well as the indicators and measures to be applied in each scenario to mitigate the consequences.

They also discussed the final proposal for the sections selected as Areas at Significant Potential Risk of Flooding (ARPSIs), which was submitted to the Committee of Competent Authorities and approved. It concluded that the Miño-Sil demarcation has 618.99 km of rivers in a potential flood zone.

In the absence of the approval of the General State Budget, the 2024 budget has been extended. The CHMS budget proposal for 2025 amounts to 52.8 million euros, 9.72% more than the previous year, with the forecast to finance expenditure through own resources.