The Civil Guard has estimated six million euros through its eight clandestine wells on a farm next to Doñana. A month ago, the armed institute delivered its report to the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Court 1 of Sanlúcar la Mayor (Seville), in which it accuses the landowner family of an “illicit extraction” of at least 3.8 billion liters. of groundwater, which is undermining the deteriorated Aljarafe Sur aquifer, very close to the National Park. Researchers estimate that this alleged water looting, which has lasted a decade and has generated environmental damage of between 6.1 and 6.4 million euros, given that the theft has ranged between 3.8 and 6.6 million meters cubic of water. That is, between 3,807 and 6,640 million liters.
summarizes the damage caused to the reserve by the large landowner family on their Aljóbar farm, full of gourmet orange crops: “The aquifer has an overexploitation rate of 0.91% and a significant decrease in the level of piezometers in the last five years, It represents significant damage to the ecosystem, which can become irreversible due to the natural interconnections that exist between the different matrices (soil, water, biota).” The public ministry provided the police report derived from Operation Jimba in a case that arose a year ago after complaints from former workers on the farm itself, who had verified how only two wells were authorized, but eight more were irrigated. The case includes Eugenia Martínez de Irujo, Duchess of Montoro, as being investigated for a crime against the environment, although her brother Alfonso, Duke of Híjar, has already clarified before the judge that he manages the farm together with his son Luis.
After the Civil Guard certified that the farm was watering its orange trees without permission and despite the fact that the wells had been sealed, last autumn Judge Pablo Aragón declined to close said wells and passed the hot potato to the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, dependent on the Ministry. of Ecological Transition. This finally carried out the closure last November after the inaction of the magistrate and after verifying that they lacked volumetric controls and “with signs of waste of resources (leaks).”
The Civil Guard emphasizes that the overexploitation of the aquifer is “very relevant” because groundwater circulates in Doñana from North to South, and the aquifer under which the Aljóbar farm sits is hydraulically connected to the large Almonte-Marismas mass and the Guadiamar River, heart of the surface network that nourishes Doñana. The police report lists the habitats around the wetlands that have been affected by the alleged plundering of the Casa de Alba. “The deterioration of the Doñana National Park is increasingly noticeable,” the report concludes.
To assess the damage to the hydraulic public domain, the Civil Guard divides the amount into three: the value of the extracted resource, the restoration value and the value of loss of ecosystem services. The farm had authorized the extraction of 605,150 cubic meters per year in three plots totaling 222 hectares, of which 205 were cultivated. Since 2021 the cultivated area was reduced to 164 hectares, a reduction that the agents take into account to divide the damage into two periods, from 2014 to 2020, and from 2021 to 2024. The conclusion is clear: “The volume extracted illegally during the period from 2014 to 2021 is 3.8 to 6.6 million cubic meters.” To these figures they add the economic benefit obtained by the House of Alba: between 5.8 and 6.1 million euros.
The agents highlight that the theft of water has caused the gradual decline of the aquifer, which among other effects leads to the salinization of the soil and the progressive desertification of the environment on the surface, which damages and kills the flora and fauna. “Evaporation eliminates part of the soil moisture, forming a salt deposit in the soil, with a series of direct repercussions on the plants,” the researchers exemplify.
For the organization that complained about the Ecologistas en Acción case, the damage caused to Doñana is striking: “The report not only confirms the damage caused by overexploitation for 10 years to the groundwater body, but also concludes that the extractions have affected the adjacent water masses, including the ancient Almonte-Marismas aquifer and the Guadiamar River. The importance of overexploitation is relevant because it affects the ecosystem values of Doñana, the habitats of community interest and the birdlife,” concludes Antonio Amarillo, spokesperson for the conservationists.
