The Andalusian Parliament has approved a bill that aims to legitimize illegal irrigation in the Doñana area. This initiative continues its course with the majority of political groups against it, without the favorable opinion of the Doñana participation council, without reports to support it and with the risk of sanctions from the community institutions. But the majority that make up PP and Vox has made it possible.
With this proposed law, which the PP asserts is for the reorganization of the territory, many farmers who have been using Doñana water illegally for years and even decades could be amnestied due to the expectation that water would arrive from a transfer from the Odiel-Tinto-Piedras rivers.
The Government’s reaction was not long in coming. After Minister Teresa Ribera announced that the Government will appeal the law to the Constitutional Court if it goes ahead, the president himself, Pedro Sánchez, at a PSOE event in Burgos proclaimed his firm opposition: “I say this calmly but also with forcefulness: Doñana is not touched. It is the heritage of all Andalusians and all Spaniards. Doñana will not be touched!â€
Doñana has fired the political tension at the gates of the 28- M. Yesterday it was noticed in the plenary. One of the most tense moments came when the Andavant Andalusia parliamentarian Maribel Mora threw sand from Doñana at the seat of the president of the Board, Juanma Moreno, who was not present at the time. “If you want to attract attention, buy a monkey”, repeated the president of the Chamber, Jesús Aguirre.
“This plenary session is a before and an after in terms of the credibility of Moreno Bonilla”, assured Juan Espadas, leader of the Andalusian PSOE yesterday, and also asked the president of the Board to “assume the responsibilities” if there is a legal response by Europe.
That agreement, Espadas recalled. Moreno Bonilla “reopens the water war in Doñana because this law opens Pandora’s box”. In the same vein, Endavant Andalusia said: “Moreno Bonilla will become the president of the Board that will dry up Doñana”.
But with what water will the farms be watered if the national park is dry?
According to the people, it should be done when the works to transfer the Odiel – which are the responsibility of the State – materialize. From the popular group, Toni MartÃn explained to La Vanguardia that no farmer who receives an irrigation permit under this law will take water until there is a transfer.
The main criticisms of the PP and Vox are that this bill is being pushed forward despite possible European sanctions. “All the reports, which would be absolutely negative, have been skipped”, emphasize from Andavant Andalusia. For their part, from Per Andalusia they asked “who will pay for the broken dishes when the sanction materializes for breaching the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, or for the damage done to the legal agricultural production of the environment of the park and the unprecedented ecological damage”. “One month ago today, the European Commission said that this text was contrary to compliance with the sentence and that it would put all the measures at its disposal for compliance.”
The conservationist organization WWF has stated that the “anti-Doñana” law of the PP and Vox “challenges science and legality”, with reference to the report presented by the scientists of the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC). This environmental organization assures that it will “notify the European Commission and the international authorities” of this “flagrant violation of the judgment of the European Court of Justice”.
