Alexis Haritsis accused the government of privatizing the water ecosystems, the management and marketing of the water resources of Thessaly, speaking in the Parliament about the bill of the Ministry of the Environment. “You are in a hurry to legislate the establishment of the single water management body in the Thessaly basin. Another wonderful opportunity, for Mr. Mitsotakis, and in this disaster: commercialization of water. And of the irrigation water”, said the president of the KO of the New Left.
He said that “the disaster in Thessaly is indicative and revealing of the future that is augured for our country with the current government” and that “what is being “played” today is not water management only in Thessaly, but the pilot application of an overall model water management. “The future is extremely ominous if Mr. Mitsotakis and the ND do not leave,” he noted.
Mr. Haritsis began his statement by responding to B. Stiga’s accusation of concessionaires: “Your political ancestors were concessionaires: from the possession of dosilogos to the junta tragedy of Cyprus. The extreme right is the faction that has led this country to tragedies.” After returning the designation to him, he commented that it lets him choose “which parties to congratulate, the ones that avoid submitting a memorandum to the Supreme Court to exclude you, that have MEP candidates who talk about ‘welcome votes'”. “We say it clearly: We consider you unwelcome. Your votes are not welcome”, he stressed.
He referred to the State Department’s “report – a report on the issues of the rule of law in Greece”, while regarding the economy he commented that the government “has the audacity to celebrate”. He cited the Financial Times to report that “Greeks have now become the second poorest in Europe of 27. We are only surpassed by Bulgaria” and that “the gap with Bulgaria is narrowing rapidly”.
Moving on to the bill, Mr. Haritsis argued that “where our country and our people have been experiencing for five years an endless series of disasters, Mr. Mitsotakis sees an endless series of economic opportunities, “reasons for anti-reforms, that deepen the same development model that brought us here.” He said that the main function of the new organization will be the pricing of irrigation water in the Thessalian plain, in the absence of RAE and without guarantees. “Will there be an increase in tariffs to meet the exorbitant salaries you foresee for the board members?”, he asked, adding that the cost will be passed on to the final product. “The worst thing is that the establishment of the single agency is an act of usurping water resources from local communities,” he added.
He noted that “all the country’s scientific bodies agree that the HVA company’s study recycles our domestic existing knowledge about the problems of the Thessalian plain, but underlines the three pre-existing political priorities of the government: the commercialization of water, the total restoration – out the window and through the Netherlands – the plan to divert the Acheloos, supporting the most sketchy plan to change crops in the area, a plan that falls far short of existing domestic scientific knowledge on the issue, spearheaded by the total replacement of cotton’. He emphasized that the managing director of the company stated that the same company that did the study has its own investment plan ready, for the mass production of specific products, which the company itself will act as the intermediary.
He argued that the solution to Thessaly’s water problem lies in the strategic planning regarding the change of crops in the area and in the Integrated Flood Protection Plan, “which the government is currently not preparing”. He added that it is urgent to complete all the projects foreseen by the Thessaly Watershed Management Plan with an emphasis on the many small mountain hydrology projects.
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Tags: Haritsis played today water management Thessaly pilot application water management model
