The actions of this project, made up of European cities committed to environmental conservation, are based on five pillars: water, air, noise, green spaces and waste management
The departments of Open Government, Economic Promotion and Employment and Urban Planning, Huerta and Environment of the City Council of Murcia call for contributions from technology centres, official schools, university research groups, associations and business groups.
Murcia has been selected to participate in this initiative funded by the European Commission together with the cities of Cieza (Spain), Arezzo (Italy), Helsinborg (Sweden) and Vilnius (Lithuania).
The City Council of Murcia has convened this Tuesday the first local action group to achieve the improvement of environmental indicators in the municipality of Murcia. This action is part of the European project GreenMe5, funded by the European Commission within the Life + framework programme with a budget of 209,786.98 euros, from European Union funds, which seeks to improve urban environments through actions focused on five pillars: water, air, noise, green spaces and waste management.
To this end, the councillors for Open Government, Economic Promotion and Employment and Urban Planning, Vegetable Garden and Environment, Mercedes Bernabé and Antonio Navarro, respectively, have held a first meeting with the entities that will collaborate with the Consistory and which form part of this local action group, among which are technology centres, official colleges, university research groups, associations and business groups. The members of this group will make contributions and proposals on the actions to be undertaken, actions that will seek to improve environmental levels, reaching more appropriate indicators to improve the quality of life of citizens.
Five European cities have been selected for the GreenMe5 project, so along with Murcia, Cieza (Spain), Arezzo (Italy), Helsinborg (Sweden) and Vilnius (Lithuania) are also involved, coordinated in Spain through the Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia.
In February 2021 Murcia joined the Green City Accord, a movement formed by European cities committed to environmental conservation, being one of the first cities to do so. To this end, it undertook to undertake actions in the five pillars mentioned above with the aim of improving environmental indicators.
Mercedes Bernabé explains that “Murcia is a city that looks to Europe, always working on different calls and updating itself with the new European trends, and just as Murcia looks to Europe, Europe looks to Murcia. In this sense, we are working on the GreenMe5 project to improve the implementation of the Green City Accord in the municipality of Murcia”.
“GreenMe5 allows the integration of municipal services and this local action group for the improvement of urban environmental indicators, with the collaboration of other European cities participating in the project and encouraging citizens to get involved and participate in municipal affairs in the environmental area”, insists the Councillor for Open Government, Economic Promotion and Employment.
During the meeting with the members of the local action group, councillor Antonio Navarro insisted on the importance of having their direct collaboration as support agents in the improvement of these five environmental pillars, while inviting them to share their ideas for improvement and suggestions. He also informed them that a mailbox has been created on the project’s website for the submission of proposals (https://www.estrategiamurcia.es/greenme5/).
Ongoing projects
Murcia City Council is already working in the five areas of the European GreenMe5 project (water, air, noise, green spaces and waste management) with initiatives that have already begun to operate and others that are about to do so.
- In water, Murcia is an example, as 98% of its wastewater is reused and it is also working on various European projects to obtain nutrients from wastewater, such as nitrogen and phosphorus for the countryside.
- In the air, the Municipal Aerobiology Network has been set up, consisting of 13 stations that measure air quality and pollen levels. The stations have been strategically located both in the city centre and in the districts, which will allow a real perception of the air quality in the municipality of Murcia by extending the measurement to several areas. These sensors make it possible to measure the air quality and to know it in real time from CEUS.
- In terms of noise, the City Council is working on updating the Noise Map of the Municipality of Murcia, a new version of which will provide information on noise stress in neighbourhoods and districts in order to design an intervention strategy to reduce noise levels in those areas where the measurements are highest.
- In terms of green spaces, the city of Murcia is making great strides, achieving more citizen-friendly environments. In this case we can highlight projects such as Murcia Río, which has recovered the banks of the Segura in its urban section, the green ring that will be built in the urban space freed by the burying of the train tracks, the Vía Verde de la Costera Sur, the Paseo Alfonso X El Sabio or the Corredor Verde del Oeste, whose works have just started and which will link Murcia Río with the great central lung of Salitre, La Seda and El Rocío.
- Finally, in waste management, work will be carried out to reduce food waste through the circular economy with pilot actions in schools in the municipality of Murcia in which awareness-raising activities will be carried out so that children acquire good habits and become aware of the need to reduce food waste. Bernabé stresses that “this action is part of the Circular Economy Strategy of the Municipality of Murcia, initiated in 2019 by Mayor Ballesta’s government team”.