The Criminal Court number 14 of Seville has sentenced each of the five brothers tried last March to three years and five months in prison for crimes against the environment and damage to the public hydraulic domain, committed when extracting an aquifer that supplies the Doñana National Park with approximately “double” the water whose withdrawal they had authorized, for irrigation on their Aznalcázar farm.
This appears in a ruling issued on September 18 and reported by Europa Press, which also imposes compensation of almost two million euros in favor of the CHG.
According to the indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office, collected by Europa Press, the accused are José María, Ana María, Antonio, Ernesto and Francisco C.P., co-owners of the Hato Blanco Viejo farm, located in Aznalcázar and registered in the Catalog of Private Waters of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG), some land dedicated to rice and cotton crops, with irrigation authorization, “conditioned on maximum annual volumes.”
And the fact is that the farm “sits in the Almonte-Marismas aquifer, which feeds the Doñana National Park”, a space of maximum protection due to its exceptional natural values, declared World Heritage and Biosphere Reserve by the Organization of the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO).
In this framework, the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that “despite knowledge of the nature of the space on which the property is located and the conditions imposed,” the accused “have repeatedly and consciously failed to comply with the imposed limitations, withdrawing very large volumes of water.” higher than those authorized with the consequent risk for the ecosystem and transferring water from the northern area to the southern area, for which they had installed a large pipeline.
Recalling up to 13 administrative files or resolutions promoted by the Administration against these people based on the events described, the Prosecutor’s Office states that despite this, the accused “continued to withdraw volumes of water much higher than those authorized”, from the years 2008 to 2013. , “who are affected” by this judicial procedure.
“The annual excess of water withdrawn has doubled the permitted volumes every year, significantly exceeding the needs of the crops exploited,” indicates the Public Ministry, warning that the facts are even “more serious” taking into account that the mass affected aquifer “is in poor quantitative condition after suffering a significant decline over the years.”
“The importance is maximum from the moment in which, when discharging” the affected aquifer “groundwater in channels, pipes, wetlands, meadows and in the marshes”, this type of resources represent “the main source of contribution for the maintenance of protected habitats, with many species closely linked to the aquatic environment,” warns the Prosecutor’s Office.
To this end, the Prosecutor’s Office attributed to the defendants damage to the public hydraulic domain whose value would amount to 1,967,617 euros for such acts committed between 2008 and 2013, accusing them of alleged crimes against the environment and damages.
Given the case, the Public Ministry demanded for each of them three years in prison for the alleged crime against the environment and an additional year and a half in prison for the alleged crime against the public hydraulic domain, as well as fines totaling 18,000. euros, always for each one of them.
After the trial, the court condemns the five defendants as direct co-authors of a crime against the environment in conjunction with a crime of damage to the hydraulic public domain, with the mitigation of undue delays, imposing two years and five months in prison for the first case and a year in prison for the second, in addition to fines and the obligation to jointly compensate the CHG with almost two million euros.
And the court sees proven the “abuse” committed by the accused, with water withdrawals “exceeding twice what is allowed”, putting “the natural system at serious risk.”
