Mijas Costa SAN JAVIER
3
OLIVE PRESS
The
June 3rd - June 16th 2021
FREE
COSTA BLANCA
Your
expat
voice in Spain
Vol. 3 Issue 67 www.theolivepress.es October 21st - November 3rd 2021
EXCLUSIVE: The stunning Costa home where The Crown is setting Lady Diana during her 1990s escapes from her divorce back home...
Sucked dry Illegal water extraction is threatening to drain Spain’s wetland reserves and cause irreversible ecological damage
A NEW report has revealed the shocking extent of water theft from some of Spain’s most fragile wetlands. The WWF study insists the key endangered habitats include the Doñana National Park, in Andalucia, Las Tablas de Daimiel wetlands, in Castilla La Mancha, and the Mar Menor, in Murcia. The report claims groundwater from aquifers is being looted to irrigate vast
By Fiona Govan and Amber Edirisinghe
vegetable and fruit growing zones at an ‘alarming rate’ without proper control by the authorities. The stolen water is enough to fill 65,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools each year, or the equivalent of half the annual water supply to the city of Madrid. A year-long investigation highlights the extraction in four key areas, which the WWF insists are not isolated cases but are the worst examples of nationwide negligence. The Doñana area - home to 2,000 species of wildlife, DEMO: 75,000 protestors gathered in Murcia including the Iberian lynx - already has the highest protection status and is listed as a
UNESCO World Heritage site. Yet 80% of its natural water supplies have already been drained to irrigate the rice paddies and strawberry fields that surround the park, which sits between Cadiz, Sevilla and Huelva.
Excessive The EU’s Court of Justice ruled in June that Spain had broken EU law by allowing the excessive extractions of groundwater there. Its underground aquifers are in serious danger after 1,000 illicit boreholes and 3,000 hectares of illegal crops were discovered around Donana. Meanwhile the Mar Menor is being slowly poisoned as illegal nitrogen-based discharges are causing a build-up of algae that has cut oxygen levels in the lagoon, leaving marine life to suffocate. Last week, 75,000 people joined a demo in Murcia to protest against the ‘death’ of the lagoon. “If this is happening in places like Doñana, or the Mar Menor, what is going on in those areas which aren’t under scrutiny?” asked Rafael Seiz, a scientist at the WWF. One of these could be at the Iznajar reservoir, in Cordoba, after an Olive Press reader revealed that hundreds of fish, at least, have been washing up dead this month. Local expat John
SALES & RENTALS SPECIALISTS Moriara•Calpe•Jalon•Javea•Denia•Altea
96 649 1883 www.moraira-hamiltons.net
Continues on Page 4
Opinion Page 6
...WHILE,, also inside, ...WHILE the REAL home that the princess stayed at, which last week was the holiday escape of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his paintbrushes