Between 2,000 and 3,000 people, according to figures from the National Police and the organization, respectively, demonstrated this Sunday in Seville convened by the platform Let’s save Doñana against the proposed law to expand irrigation in the northern crown of the nature reserve. A notice, a first call for citizen attention, seconded by social and political organizations, until the proposal promoted by PP and Vox is withdrawn, the organizers have warned.
The highest authority of the Guadalquivir basin: “The law of the Board is dangerous for Doñana”
Further
Festive and demanding atmosphere against the plan that the Andalusian PP will reactivate in Parliament two days after the municipal elections of 28M. The proposal will offer irrigation rights to an unknown number of farmers, who in recent years have cultivated their land 30 kilometers from Doñana, depleting the already weakened aquifer. “The aquifer passes through there and, no matter where you look, Doñana is getting screwed”, summarized Antonio, who drew with gestures and his cane the scenario posed by the bill and who attended the call from Huelva by bus . “We don’t want Doñana to become a desert and the day comes when there is no water for anyone,” Pepa, who also arrived from Huelva, told him.
Internship in Doñana
“Doñana is not touched, Doñana defends herself” has been the main call for attention in which the participants of the march have agreed, who have joined the call of the platform, whose coordinator is currently made up of 42 entities. Its spokespersons, members of Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, Seo/Birdlife and WWF, the main environmental organizations in Spain, have intervened at the closing of the day, in front of the Parliament of Andalusia, inviting citizens and entities to join to the manifest that in these days they have been disseminating, and to which they have given I am going this Sunday José Chamizo and Kiko Veneno.
Miriam has also come from Córdoba by bus to Seville, where her biologist friends Rocío and Alba live. “I am concerned that politicians influence a natural space like Doñana for the worse without taking care of it,” she says. Her ‘mani’ colleagues are doing a Master’s Degree in Biodiversity and Conservation, and they are planning their internships in the natural park. “We have to safeguard the defense of Doñana”, they explain at the start of the march in the Alameda de Hércules “concerned” by the climate crisis.
Weeks of political storm, threats of millionaire fines from Brussels and an unconstitutionality appeal from the Government of Spain, have preceded the citizen mobilization. “Enough of exploiting Doñana”, “withdrawal of the law against Doñana” or “we want Doñana, and not a pig pond” have been some of the various proclamations that have been heard throughout the march, which occupied the entire Feria Street at noon, before facing Resolana Street to the Parliament, always accompanied by the batucadas Oshun and Som Do Sul. “No to the antidoña law” (WWF), “Strawberries for today, thirsty for tomorrow”, “El Capitalism kills the planet” (Students Union), “Stop illegal irrigation” (Greenpeace), “There is no future without a planet” (Youth for Climate), “We cannot steal water from Doñana”, have been some of the banners citizens and participating organizations.
“The problem is serious and the PP is going to sink them all”
The veteran activist Paco Casero highlighted to this medium the presence of the Puerta de Doñana Farmers’ Association, which pronounced itself “forceful” these days “for the first time” because they have seen that “the problem is serious and the PP is going to sink them to all”. The association encouraged the claim “to raise awareness of how harmful the irrigation law that the Junta de Andalucía promotes really is because, in addition, it deceives farmers about the availability of water, encourages deforestation in Doñana and, therefore, , means increasing the serious deterioration of the Doñana Natural Area and its aquifer”.
Antonio, a resident of Seville, points out that he does not want “money to be made from everything” because “we do not have a planet b”. That’s why he declared, “because we’re killing it,” stressing that his presence was due to putting “a grain of sand” to the cause with his ‘Salvemos Doñana’ shirt. The platform, by the way, has announced this Sunday that the demonstration is “the first in a series of events that the citizen initiative is organizing to inform about the threat to Doñana and open channels for participation to demand responsibility from the competent administrations.”
“While the president of the Junta de Andalucía repeats the mantra of his green revolution, Andalusian politics is not only far from being green or revolutionary, but also is not even framed within the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda”, They have communicated from the organization at the end of the day, which has ended with an act of poetic reading of texts related to Doñana and water by the La Dhákira Sociocultural Association.
Among the extracts from the manifesto, it has been reported that “there are alternatives so that the amnesty proposal put forward for the second time by the Andalusian government, devastating for the most important wetland in Europe, does not go ahead. But political will is needed to put Doñana and its conservation first, as the key to a favorable socioeconomic future for the localities of the region. However, it is evident that this political will points to other paths, serving other economic purposes that have nothing to do with Doñana”.
Support of the Andalusian left
Several political representatives of the formations of the Andalusian left have also participated in the demonstration. The spokesperson for Adelante Andalucía, Teresa Rodríguez, stressed that the proposal “not only puts Doñana’s biodiversity at risk, but also the future of Huelva and Andalusians.” “If we dry up Doñana and Andalucía with the expansion of irrigation, there will be nowhere to grow crops, and possibly there will be nowhere to eat either,” she warned.
“If Doñana dies, it is the beginning of the death of Andalusia”, he has sentenced, adding that “it would be the consolidation of a model that can only be sustained on the basis of the destruction of natural resources and that generates precarious employment in conditions of semi-slavery in shameful conditions”. “You have to take the needles out of the Doñana voodoo doll and think of other development models that allow you to think about the future,” she concluded.
The general coordinator of IU Andalucía, Toni Valero, has been convinced that the bill “is not going to be the end of Doñana but it could be the beginning of the end of Moreno, who has dropped the mask of moderate ”. In this sense, Valero pointed out that the president of the Board “has shown all his arrogance and that has even led him to make a fool of himself before the European institutions.”
“Andalusia is suffering from an unparalleled climate crisis and is suffering from absolutely irresponsible water management by the Andalusian Government”, he stressed, lamenting that “water is a scarce and highly valued commodity and instead of carrying out responsible water management Depending on the supply, the Andalusian Government manages water according to demand, which is absolutely unsustainable”.
Swords, from Salobreña
For her part, the spokesperson for the parliamentary group For Andalusia, Inmaculada Nieto, has criticized the “irresponsibility” of Moreno, who “is trying to translate this frightful ridicule and this damage that he is doing to Doñana and the reputation of agricultural production into votes. from Huelva”. Nieto has assured that “Moreno has done this because he knows that there are responsible institutions that are going to enforce the law and that they are going to enforce the CJEU ruling.” In this way, according to Nieto, the president of the Board intends to “put the blame on third parties.”
The spokesperson for Izquierda Unida and MEP, Sira Rego, recalled that the complaint presented to the European Commission by Izquierda Unida requests the adoption of precautionary measures in the event that the bill to expand irrigation in Doñana is approved in Parliament from Andalusia.
The general secretary of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, from Salobreña, in the middle of the 28M campaign, wanted to make clear his support for the mobilization called by Salvemos Doñana, indicating that the president of the Junta has “screwed up” with a proposition of law that can lead to “sanctions” from Europe. “The PP knows that it is a serious risk and it is a mistake, but it is trying to cover it up now so as not to have electoral wear and tear while it continues to lie to farmers in the area to try to get a handful of votes,” Espadas denounced.
