Ahead of the start of the strawberry planting in the new agricultural season, the WWF claims that, at present, 1,180.2 hectares are still being irrigated in Doñana outside the irrigable agricultural area (SAR), delimited by the Special Plan for the Corona Forestal. Of these, almost 80% are illegal berry crops.
The organization has called for the immediate precautionary closure of all illegal wells and farms and the application of the Corona Forestal Plan in its current wording in order to comply with the European Commission's ruling and UNESCO's recommendations.
The amount of water used in this unauthorized irrigated area is estimated at about 6 million cubic meters (6 hm³); that is, 2,400 Olympic-size swimming pools illegally extracted from the aquifer. Therefore, approximately 30,000 tons of illegally-grown strawberries and berries could end up being sold on European markets from December onwards, unless the Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir (CHG) and the Government of Andalusia prevent it.
"We have detected these irregularities in the use of land and water through satellite images and aerial orthophotographs. This information can also be accessed by the CHG with the new tool it launched in September," say the organization.
"The Doñana aquifer is overexploited, with an exploitation rate of 109%, as we have shown from official data, so we cannot wait another year for the end of the agricultural campaigns to act. They can and must prevent water from continuing to be extracted illegally and the situation from worsening even further," they say.
The WWF is asking the Government of Andalusia and the CHG to take immediate and large-scale action and enforce precautionary measures, such as the closure of wells and the sealing of illegal hectares.
These measures would prevent the illegal extraction of water from the overexploited Doñana aquifer, and also prevent illegally grown strawberries from reaching the shelves of national and European markets from December onwards.
For more information: www.wwf.es