NATURE
Drought and heatwaves: Spain’s Donana wetland is
shrinking putting wildlife and crops at risk
By Euronews
Green with Reuters •
Updated: 05/05/2023
Drought is
threatening the Donana wetland and scientists say farmers in the region are
making the problem worse.
Spain's
Donana wetland has been a rich farming area for decades and a wildlife haven
for centuries.
But climate
change is drying it out and has set regional and national authorities on a
collision course over how to safeguard its future.
Scientists,
meanwhile, say the water needs of the farmers who grow thousands of tonnes of
red berries per year are making the problem worse.
What is
happening in Donana national park?
The Donana
national park lies atop a 2,700-square km underground water reserve, one of the
largest of its kind in Europe and an area almost twice the size of London.
Its
beautiful lagoons are being depleted by a long drought and hotter weather, and
they are surrounded by a sea of greenhouses and a complex system of pipes that
takes water from in some cases illegally drilled wells.
Andalusia's
conservative regional government plans an amnesty that would legalise
additional irrigation around Donana, prompting an outcry from environmentalists
and - with regional and local elections due this month - a pledge from the
Socialist-led national government to protect the park.
The region,
and more specifically the province of Huelva, where the park is located,
produces 97 per cent of Spain's red fruits and is the world's largest exporter
of strawberries.
Farmers
disagree over water plans
Farmers are
divided over the regional plan.
One group
in favour says it only wants permission to irrigate with surface water, without
jeopardising the underground reserves.
"There
is enough surface water to irrigate all the hectares in the area, some of which
are using groundwater," their spokesman Julio Diaz told Reuters.
But the
central government says that's not true, and scientists say water extraction,
both legal and illegal, is affecting the park's biodiversity.
The reserve
also boasts marshlands, scrub woodland and beaches and is home to deer, badgers
and endangered species including the Spanish imperial eagle and the Iberian
lynx.
"The
lagoons directly depend on the aquifer. If the lagoons are disappearing, it is
because the aquifer is diminishing," said Eloy Revilla, head of the Donana
Biological Station, calling for policies to reduce dependence on water in these
areas because they are not going to be sustainable.
Drought and
illegally harvested water are causing problems
Last year,
Europe experienced its hottest summer on record, compounded by several extreme
events including intense heatwaves, drought conditions and extensive wildfires,
according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and many scientists say
droughts are becoming more frequent and water more scarce.
As the
prolonged drought has left the Guadalquivir River basin's reservoirs at a
quarter of capacity, water management authorities last month reduced the amount
of water available for legal irrigation.
That forced
those Donana farmers who use legally-extracted water to kill part of their
crops to save the rest, and they are not too happy about the regional plan to
amnesty hundreds of illegally-watered hectares.
WWF
ecologists estimate that 1,900 hectares of illegal crops in Donana could be
legalised.
"Those who have been cultivating illegally for 15 years are going to be rewarded with surface water so they can irrigate on demand," said Manuel Delgado, spokesman for Puerta Donana farmers association, standing in one of the greenhouses that
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