The director of the Doana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), Eloy Revilla, affirms that “the current exploitation of the aquifer is not sustainable”
The director of the Doana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), Eloy Revilla, assured this Monday that the Doana Natural Area is currently “in a critical state”since “more than half of its gaps have disappeared”.
He has said this in the extraordinary plenary session that the Doana Participation Council has held to debate the bill that aims to regulate irrigated areas in the vicinity of Doana, in order to analyze it and address its impact on the state of conservation of the aquifer. from Doana.
In his speech, he indicated that in the latest study published in the scientific journal Science of The Total Environment, the data shows that the deterioration of the Doana lagoon system is widespread, confirming that 59% of the largest lagoons in Doana they have not flooded since at least 2013.
These changes are significantly related to the temperature and precipitation of each year, but also to the extension of cultivated areas, the constructed surface in Matalascaas, the distance to the pumping stations of the urbanization and the operation of the golf course.
ALTERATION OF THE LAGOONS
According to the data, 80% of these lagoons dried up earlier than expected due to observed precipitation and temperature, and 84% had a smaller flood area than predicted based on the same parameters, indicating that Human activity is altering the natural balance of the lagoons.
“In Mediterranean systems, droughts are recurrent, but when the succession of years without flooding exceeds this recurrence, the vegetation of the lagoons disappears and they are colonized by terrestrial vegetation, which ends with the complete disappearance of the lagoons and the loss of the habitats cataloged by the Directive”, Revilla explained, after which he specified that this is what has happened with 19% of the lagoons sampled in the study, which have already completely disappeared.
In addition, another 19% have more than half of their basin invaded by scrub and pine trees and only 10%, mainly located on the vera, remain in good condition.
For his part, the three lagoons that functioned as permanent, that is to say, those that did not dry up in summer, as is the case with the vast majority of the Doana lagoons, have ceased to be so. For example, the lagoons of El Sopetn and La Dulce, which only occasionally dried up, now dry up frequently.
The situation of Santa Olalla, the largest permanent lagoon in Doana, has been extreme in the summer of 2022, in which it completely dried up.
IMPACT ON WILDLIFE AND VEGETATION
This situation is having repercussions on the fauna and vegetation of Doana, for example, amphibian species richness has declined from an average of 4.3 species per km in 2003 to 2.5 per km in 2021.
The situation of the two species of tortoises native to the Iberian Peninsula is also worrisome, both included in the European red lists, as well as that of other groups such as dragonflies and damselflies; or fish, of which Doana preserves endangered species, such as tusks or eels.
The critical situation of these habitats is also having negative repercussions for the conservation of aquatic plantsespecially those associated with lagoons with a long hydroperiod, some of which have a very restricted distribution and are threatened.
LACK OF POLITICAL WILL
Regarding the bill presented by the PP and supported by Vox, which will be debated this Wednesday in the Andalusian Parliament, he has made it clear that “the current exploitation of the aquifer is not sustainable. More resources are being extracted than are regenerated annually through recharge due to precipitation, which is variable and decreasing, which is why this natural resource is running out”. In his opinion, there is a “clear lack of political will” when it comes to solving the problem that has led “to the untenable critical point in which Doana finds itself.”
For Revilla, the need to provide water to other farms makes it even more difficult to urgently solve the problem: “Doana’s current situation is critical and does not allow us to wait another decade for decisions to adjust water demand to availability.”
In his speech, he offered some guidelines to prevent further degradation of the natural space, such as urgently reducing the amount of water that is extracted from the aquifer to levels that allow its recovery to begin; update the aquifer status assessment system, and urgently restore governance in the exploitation and management of water and soil in Doana and its region.
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