Doñana enters “an unknown scenario”

2023-12-15 01:46:04

The environmental organization WWF has carried out an evaluation of the report on the quantitative situation and evolution of levels in the Almonte-Marismas aquifer for the hydrological year 2022-2023 in Doñana (Huelva), prepared by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG), since The National Park enters an “unknown scenario”, since the report indicates that it is the driest period of this duration (twelve years) since 1970.

With only 62% of the average

The report indicates that precipitation for the 2022/23 hydrological year was 323 mm. –October 2022 – September 2023–, so it is a dry year, “with only 62% of the average.” In addition, the hydrological year 2022/23 “extends the dry period in the area for another year: The last wet year in Doñana was 2010/2011, with 742 mm” and therefore, it is “the period of this duration ( twelve years) driest since 1970”.

In this regard, this is the “most relevant” aspect of the report for WWF, as explained by its spokesperson in Doñana, Juanjo Carmonathis situation “makes us enter a scenario unknown until now”, since “there has never been such a long period without a wet year.”

A different scenario that will require courage and urgency, qualities that administrations are not having

“Therefore, we are in a situation that we had not seen, since there have been other droughts, but not as long. Therefore, we must begin to think that we are in a new model, a different scenario that will require courage and emergencies, qualities that the administrations are not having,” he said.

In this regard, he has reiterated that “It may rain a lot next year”but “the current scenario is that twelve dry years have passed”to this is added the average temperature last year “has been the highest since 1978”, specifically “two degrees more on average”.

“Therefore, if you add the temperature data with the rainfall figure, no matter how much you want to inflate the bubble, the result is that we are in a different scenario. Speeches like the one from the Board that is being heard these days do not match reality“, he stated.

Aquifer status

On the other hand, Carmona has regretted that the situation of the aquifers “is getting worse again” because although it has rained “it has not had an impact on it” and, in fact, “it has worsened above the rainfall” that is, “more resources are being extracted”, something that is “unacceptable.”

Although it has rained “it has not had an impact on it, in fact, it has worsened above the rainfall, that is, more resources are being extracted, something that is “unacceptable.”

“The Confederation needs to put on the table a serious and rigorous extraction plan. Because we are in collapse. Right now much more water is removed than is replaced in this short term. Which is leading you to be completely exhausting the reserve. And this is going to have consequences, logically, and we are already seeing it in the long term as well,” she emphasized.

In this regard, he detailed that compared to last year’s data “there is no system analyzed that improves”, in fact, “one of them goes from alert to alarm, with which there are three in pre-alert, three in alert and ten in alarm“, in conclusion “worse than ever.”

“The analysis of the long-term trend shows you, in this case, that the aquifer is progressively worsening and does not reverse your situation. Its long-term trend is negative. And the figures show that more water is extracted than is replaced by the rains. But there are also beginning to be suspicions of salinization episodes in some parts of the aquifer. “All sectors, excluding 2 and 14 of the 16, have a long-term negative trend,” he noted.

Something that has highlighted that “It is also especially worrying in the lagoon sectorwhich is an area of ​​the highest environmental level and that this year, For the second time in history, it dries up“.

The Hollis report, from WWF in the 90s, already said that Matalascañas was a problem for the lagoons and that water had to be brought from another place

“That is not trivial, it is a scenario unknown until now and that could have very serious consequences on Doñana. The administration knows the actions it has to implement, it has them in the hydrological plan, many of them repeated for two hydrological plans There are measures that have been known since the Hollis report, which WWF did in the 90swhich already said that Matalascañas was a problem for the lagoons and that water had to be brought from another place,” he highlighted.

In this regard, he regretted that, “30 years later, this measure has not been declared an emergency by the State and that is the main irresponsibility of the administrations right now, which are not giving sufficient emergency urgency to the measures that are needed in Doñana”, since he has stated that “what is not appropriate is to propose changes again, such as is doing the president of the Junta de Andalucía, now instead of by Law by Decree, of a Strawberry plan that was already limited to the water that was supposed to be there and as we see, we may even have more problems.

For this reason, he has insisted on asking administrations to implement measures “urgently”, to “declare them of general interest” and to “execute them now”. “We cannot say that this year wells cannot be closed, we cannot allow the water from Matalascaña to leave the lagoons dry again for the third consecutive year. We know the problems, we have the diagnosis, let’s put the measures in place now“.

Conclusions of the report

The report points out, as conclusions, that the trend marked by piezometers –which measure groundwater– has “an unfavorable development”all of this “despite the fact that extractions have decreased by 10.5 hm3 since 2015 -6.8 hm3 after the Los Mimbrales purchase and 3.7 hm3 after the replacement by surface waters in the Arroyo de Don Gil area- -, which have improved the situation in the areas where they have been applied, despite the dry cycle.”

According to the CHG, this sectoralized analysis “allows us to affirm that the current degree and mode of exploitation of underground resources in areas of the detrital aquifer compromises their good condition and that of the dependent terrestrial ecosystems, which is evident in the fact that three of the five masses that make up the aquifer system do not reach good quantitative status”, which “forces the hydraulic administration to take a series of measures to ensure non-deterioration“, as well as to take all possible actions to reverse this bad state with a view to the horizon of 2027.”

Likewise, it considers it “also urgent” that “on the part of the competent authority measures are taken to maintain nitrate levels within the levels set by regulations“.