The increase in irrigation constitutes the greatest threat to aquatic ecosystems in the Spanish State and can lead “to a collapse of the water system in a few years in a large part of the territory.” This is emphasized by Santiago Martín Barajas, spokesperson for Ecologistas en Acción, on World Water Day.
In Spain there are currently more than four million hectares (has) under irrigation, to which must be added illegal irrigation.
However, according to recent studies (carried out in Doñana, Daimiel, the Arenales aquifer, Valladolid, and the Mar Menor), these figures could increase to at least 4.5 million hectares considering illegal irrigation, according to Martin Barajas.
The data on irrigation accounts for 85% of water consumption in Spain. The percentage is even higher if returns are taken into account, that is, the water that goes back into the system after use.
Irrigation continues to grow. Castilla-La Mancha is the region where it has increased the most, with a growth in irrigated area of ??the order of 65% in the last 25 years.
Next are Andalusia and Extremadura. The exponential increase in intensively irrigated woody crops that until two or three decades ago were only rainfed, such as olive groves, vineyards and almond trees, now also accompanied by pistachio, is especially worrying.
Ecologists in Action describes as “incredible” that the most extensive irrigated crop is the olive grove with 853,000 hectares. There are also 400,000 hectares of vineyards under irrigation, 150,000 of almond trees and 20,000 of pistachios.
The consequences of this irrigation explosion are being environmentally “disastrous”, says this organization. In Andalusia, the reservoirs are only at 30% at the beginning of spring, when they should be almost double.
Last summer all the lagoons in the Doñana National Park dried up. Despite this, the Junta de Andalucía intends to legalize 1,600 more irrigated hectares in the surroundings of this protected area.
In Castilla-La Mancha the overexploitation of aquifers intensifies. The Daimiel lagoon complex is practically dead. Even the wetlands that were supplied with treated wastewater cannot even have this resource due to the opening of new wells in their surroundings, as occurs in the Navaseca lagoon.
In the La Mancha region, in addition, numerous illegal wells are being opened and “legal” irrigation extracts several times more water than authorized, as is the case in the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete and Ciudad Real. In the latter, Seprona denounced that 99% of the well meters were rigged so as not to count all the water they extract.
On the other hand, the proliferation of irrigation entails the massive use of fertilizers and pesticides, which contaminate aquifers and surface waters. A paradigmatic example of the consequences of this pollution is the destruction of the Mar Menor (Murcia).
For all these reasons, “Ecologistas en Acción considers the expansion of irrigation as the greatest current threat to the natural environment.” If it continues as before, in the next multi-annual drought there will be a water collapse that will especially affect the southern half of the peninsula, they add.
To avoid this disaster, Ecologists in Action considers it essential to stop the expansion of irrigation and reduce the area currently irrigated by at least one million hectares.
In this way, a certain water rebalancing could be achieved and water collapse avoided. This reduction in the irrigated area would in no way affect food sovereignty, since currently 75% of irrigated production is destined for export.
