The NASA Earth Observatory has stated that “agriculture and tourism beyond the park’s borders have increasingly taxed the water supply” in Doñana, and that 83% of wetlands they are less inundated than could be explained by drought.
The US agency has released a report citing the findings of a study that has used satellite data for more than three decades to understand how human demands on the aquifer have affected ponds.
To do this, scientists from the Doñana Biological Station used Landsat images to quantify the extent and duration of flooding in 316 ponds between 1985 and 2018 and concluded that, to a large extent, the use of groundwater caused most of them ” flooded less frequently and, in some cases, dried up completely.”
The most notable impacts appear directly adjacent to where the water is pumped, according to the conclusions of the report, which highlights the development of the tourist enclave of Matalascañas and that takes advantage of groundwater.
In addition, he adds that a golf course that operated there for 17 years reduced pond flooding during that time and that, on the western fringe of the park, greenhouses that grow strawberries and other berry crops draw water from the aquifer for irrigation.
“The same groundwater that drives the wetland’s flood cycles is also accessible for uses outside the national park,” says the study, which recalls that Doñana’s marshes, wetlands, and dunes “provide habitat for hundreds of species of birds, along with with endangered animals.
In total, of the several hundred ponds studied, 59% have not flooded since at least 2013, and 83% are flooding less extensively, and for less time, than would be explained by climate.
“Development outside the protected area, in addition to prolonged drought, have taxed the shared aquifer and endangered the ecosystem and its protected status,” the report said.
NASA also stresses that in recent decades farmers near the wetland have shifted from drought-tolerant crops such as olives and grains to more water-intensive crops, particularly strawberries.
The study has provoked a chain of reactions that pass from the central government to the rest of the parties. In this sense, the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, has reproached her networks that “even NASA sees that Doñana is drying up”, for which reason “Feijóo’s PP puts the economy and heritage at risk with their ‘flights forward'”.
In addition, the general secretary of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, has made Moreno ugly for having made “so many appeals to dialogue as the leading line” of his government “when he refuses to talk with the head of the opposition to find an alternative to this blind alley in which “the president of the Junta” has put us “in relation to Doñana”, as he has asserted.
On the other hand, the spokesperson for Por Andalucía in the Andalusian Parliament, Inmaculada Nieto, has highlighted “scientific denialism” that, according to her, is practiced by the Andalusian Government, since she has asserted that “the CSIC, scientific societies, people who have unquestionable international prestige for their knowledge of water management in general and of the conservation of Doñana in particular, it turns out that they are in an international conspiracy against Huelva, from which, of course, you are also defending us”.
“NASA has joined this conspiracy. Luckily we no longer have an astronaut minister, otherwise I can imagine where the explanation of what happened would go,” he added.
For his part, the number 1 candidate for the Congress of Deputies for Sumar in the province of Huelva, Rafael Sánchez Rufo, this Wednesday asked the president of the Board to attend to the “cry of international organizations” to “value “measures that are aimed at saving the Doñana Natural Park “beginning with the withdrawal of the PDL to increase the surrounding agricultural spaces. “We do not know what else is needed for the Government of Juanma Moreno to realize what is now NASA has said, but what other international organizations have already said,” Rufo emphasized.
