Doñana, subject to exhaustive surveillance. At the expense of the National Court Prosecutor's Office, groundwater extractions that take place in this protected space will be controlled in order to detect illegal collections of this liquid by companies and professionals, public or private, as well as to determine if those that have concessions in order exceed the permitted consumption quota. This would give rise to the opening of proceedings from which environmental responsibility can be demanded from offenders for the deterioration of the habitats, flora and fauna, which constitute the ecosystem of the area.
Prosecutor Manuel Campoy will be in charge of enforcing the ruling issued in 2021 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) 2021, which already warned that the pressure that the Doñana aquifer was under with extractions for irrigation were deteriorating and They endangered their livelihood.
As indicated by the Public Ministry, the points that will be targeted are those of the protected areas of 'Doñana', 'Doñana Norte y Oeste' and 'Dehesa del Estero y Montes de Moguer'. Here, if illegal wells or water withdrawals above what is permitted are found, and in order to clarify responsibilities for environmental damage, proceedings would be opened that would include not only reports from SEPRONA, but also expert reports that assess how these extractions endanger the ecological, chemical and quantitative status of surface and underground water masses as well as reports on the impact that this practice has on the conservation of habitats or wild species.
The announcement of this investigation coincides in the same week with the approval last Tuesday of the opinion of the proposed Irrigation Law in the Andalusian Parliament, a norm that regularizes irrigated areas in the Northern Forest Crown of Doñana (Almonte, Moguer, Lucena del Puerto, Bonares and Rociana del Condado). The controversial initiative, promoted by the PP-A and Vox and which will be definitively approved at the beginning of October, has the left with parliamentary representation and the environmentalists against it.
For WWF, the opening of proceedings on environmental responsibility in the deterioration of Doñana "is the way" to protect the space, stated Juanjo Carmona, coordinator of the organization's Office in the area. “The way is not to encourage people to the anarchy of the countryside, because water is a finite good,” he explained, referring to the attitude of the Andalusian Government with respect to the dangerous situation in which the Park finds itself, “the The Board, led by Juanma Moreno and the PP-A, insist on legalizing the illegal, giving them an amnesty and not applying the laws” with this Irrigation Law.
Ecologists in Action also celebrate the involvement of the Public Prosecutor's Office in this matter. “It should have arrived years ago, but it is never too late,” said Juan Romero, spokesperson for the group in the Doñana Participation Council, who points out the “systematic non-compliance” with the rules in the park, which has caused “a situation very complex.” “If the law is strictly applied, half of irrigated farms will either close or convert to dry land,” he says.
Despite environmentalists, the scientific community and warnings from Europe, in addition to the extreme drought situation suffered by the community, the Andalusian Executive has continued to take steps with its controversial law until it is about to become a reality. With it, almost 700 hectares of crops in the Northern Crown would be regulated, although there is still no water to irrigate the land.
It has been the president of the Board himself, Juanma Moreno, who has insisted, as different members of his Government have been doing, that with this initiative farmers are not being amnestied because they would not be allowed access to groundwater, but rather Access to this liquid would be at the expense of the transfer of the Tinto-Odiel-Piedras river.
