"MARCHA AL MEDITERRANEO"
TO THE RAMSAR CONVENTION CONFERENCE IN VALENCIA
FROM OCTOBER 10th TO NOVEMBER 24th

09.11.02 : Pictures of the Rhone Marcha !

"Al Mediterraneo " marches start from the Ebro, Jucar and Segura basins (Spain) and from the Rhône basin (France) and will converge on November 24th in Valencia for the 8th UN's Ramsar Convention conference.
The marches are organized by COAGRET, the Plataforma en defensa del Ebre,
and many spanish organizations an ERN (EUROPEAN RIVERS NETWORK)

The Marches will all converge on November 24th in Valencia for an important demonstration (the last demonstration of the 10th of March 2002 gathered more than 400,000 people in Barcelona). This demonstration for a New Water Culture and against the NHP (and the water transfers) will start at 12:00 AM, Plaza de San Agustin.

The 8th conference on the UN's Ramsar Convention will take place in Valencia, Spain, from the 15th to the 26th of November. This Convention gather representatives of the Ministries of Environment of 130 countries.

This international meeting gives the opportunity to the opponents of the NHP to make themselves heard. "We have to hurry", declares a representative of the movement "the Popular party (M. Aznar's), wants to convince everyone that the transfer from the Ebro river is something than can not be cancelled, that there is no need to question anything any more. It is clear that we cannot let them win this round !!"
"It is not a battle against the communities that are waiting to receive the Ebro water" explain one of the spokesmen "but an opportunity to express our concerns and to defend our preference for a New Water Culture".

The Rhône is a target of the NHP too : its transfer to Barcelona is used as a compensation to the transfer of the Ebro water to the South. For the French ecologists the idea is therefore to join the general Spanish movement and to use this opportunity to communicate about the PHN and the transfers of the Ebro and Rhône rivers.

ERN organises an "Information Caravan". It will start on November 9th in Nîmes (headquarters of the BRL, the company promoting the Rhône to Barcelona transfer project). It will go through Montpellier on November 12th, Narbonne on the 13th, Perpignan on the 14th and will reach the Spanish border in la Jonquera on November 15th (night in Barcelona).
The march will reach Barcelona on the 16th (night in Xerta). On the 17th, the march will get to Tortosa in the Ebro delta. On the 18th it will reach the small port of Sant Carles de la Rapita. On the following days, the French march will go on together with the Ebro's Marcha al Mediterraneo.

ERN wishes to rely on local initiatives to organise activities on each stage of the Information March on the Rhône transfer.
Catalan people from the POT (Plataforma d'Oposicion als Transvasaments) will take part in the French march. They will show that Catalonia has enough water but has a water management problem which will cannot be solved by an increased dependence.

For further information :

Programms

- Ebro - "Marcha al Mediterraneo" in French and Spanish.
- Rhone - "Marcha al Mediterraneo" :
Stage on 9 nov. near of Nimes in French or in Spanish
Stage on 11 nov. near of Montpellier in French or in Spanish
Stage on 12 nov. near of Narbonne in French or in Spanish
Stage on 13 nov. at Perpignan in French or in Spanish
Stage on 15 nov. from the Spanish Frontier into the Girona area in French or in Catalan
- Stages from nov.15 to 17 and call to the demonstration in ROQUETES (in Catalan)

Resume of the Valencia demonstration on nov. 24.02. (in French)

Background
- background information on the National Hydro Plan (english, french, spanish)
- background informations on the Rhone - Barcelona Transfer (french only)
- link to the Convention Ramsar.
- link to the spanish official website Marcha al Mediterraneo, in english also

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