Madrid (EFE) irrigation and the opposition of the central government.
Doñana, a World Heritage Site
Doñana was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1980 and, later, a World Heritage Site in 1994. This makes it one of the best-known protected areas in Europe.
It is spread over an area of more than 122,000 hectares in a dozen municipalities in the Andalusian provinces of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz through two formal figures: the National Park, created in 1969, and the Natural Park, created in 1989 and expanded in 1997.
Due to its size and location in the vicinity of the Strait of Gibraltar, it is home to up to 200,000 specimens of bird species: from imperial eagles to Kentish plovers, to flamingos or peregrine falcons, among many others.
However, the region is also home to numerous farms that have prospered even from illegal wells. The wells extract water from the same aquifer that must maintain the ecological balance in the area, essentially producing strawberries and red berries that are later exported to the entire continent.
A devastating report from the CSIC
The director of the Doñana Biological Station, Eloy Revilla, analyzed the bill and presented a report with alarming data. These reveal that the deterioration of the Doñana lagoon system is widespread. 59% of the largest lagoons in the reserve have not been flooded since at least 2013.
All this situation is having repercussions on the fauna and the unique vegetation of Doñana. For example, by shortening the flooding period of temporary lagoons, amphibians have lost a large part of their breeding sites.
Other habitats such as Monte Negro also depend directly on an aquifer in good condition.
Revilla stated that “the current exploitation of the aquifer is not sustainable.” More resources are extracted than are regenerated annually. He attributes the responsibility to the competent administrations and points out the “lack of political will” to solve the problem.
European judgments point out the lack of protection
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) determined in a 2021 judgment that Spain did not take into account illegal water extractions and water for urban supply in the estimation of groundwater extractions in the Doñana region when preparing the Guadalquivir Hydrological Plan 2015-2021.
It also denounced that it had not taken any measure to prevent the alteration of protected habitats.
The European Commission has warned that Spain will face economic sanctions if this law goes ahead, since it would violate the provisions of the CJEU.
The Spanish Government, against the initiative
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has assured that “it has not negotiated, much less has it reached any agreement” with PP and Vox to “increase irrigation in Doñana”.
The Government has denounced that this initiative “contempts” the role of the Doñana Participation Council and has defended that the Andalusian Executive should process it as a bill, so that the competent administrations and bodies can deliver reports.
For his part, the Andalusian Minister of Sustainability and Government spokesman, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, stressed that the solutions for farmers “never involve obtaining a single liter from the Doñana aquifer.”
What the Andalusian Government alleges
The Andalusian Government defends that, despite the expansion of irrigation, it will not authorize any extraction of water from the Doñana aquifer, depleted by illegal wells and the drought, and that the right to irrigate new hectares will be granted through the surface water that It would arrive through the transfer of the Odiel-Tinto-Piedra demarcation that, according to the Board, the State has to undertake.
The PP and Vox intend to provide a solution to farmers and irrigators in the area who have denounced that the previous Strawberry Plan (2014) left them out despite already having activity in the area, essentially the cultivation of strawberries and red berries. .
“We want to provide a solution so that no one can get water from the ground, so that irrigation does not expand and put order in the chaos that they have created during so many years of government”, referring to the more than 40 consecutive years – between 1978 and 2019- in which Andalusia was governed by the PSOE, until Moreno’s victory in the previous regional elections.
Environmentalists call him “electoralist and not very responsible”
Both WWF and Ecologistas en Acción will denounce this proposed law before the European Union. They consider that it supposes a violation of the sentence of the European Court of Justice. In addition, the delicate state in which Doñana is found will worsen.
Ecologists in Action consider that “the superior public interest of Doñana is being systematically violated and subordinated to economic interests that go against it.”
For this reason, they have indicated that they will go to the higher levels that can protect their values and integrity, such as Unesco and the European Commission, to safeguard their natural resources and biodiversity.
Both organizations consider that it is an “electoralist, short-term and not very responsible” proposal.