Strawberries cause water crisis - 17th June 2022

Doñana National Park in southern Spain's the home of one of Europe's largest wetlands. This wilderness is threatened by strawberry farming.

The park used to be full of flamingos and migrating birds. However, water levels have been reduced dramatically due to climate change and overextraction for strawberry production.

The situation could go from bad to worse. Andalucia's government's planning to expand the amount farmers can extract.

Juan Romero represents Save Doñana.

Juan Romero: "Doñana is characterised as a wetland, and a wetland is the mouth of a river with water. And what we can see here is a dry land. A dry land is a desert. Doñana has no water, we've had a series of years of drought, it is true that it is a drought, but the waters of the aquifer, which are at surface level, maintained the lagoons. Those lagoons no longer exist in Doñana."

90 percent of Spain's strawberries are produced in Huelva. They've earned the name 'red gold' because they provide 100,000 people locally with employment.

These competing interests see environmentalists, politicians and farmers locked in battle. The proposal's been criticised by the EU, UN and international supermarkets.

However, some believe extraction of groundwater has to be stopped. Without it, agriculture will die, explains Juanjo Carmona from the World Wildlife Fund.

Juanjo Carmona: "Agriculture has been based on taking water from the ground. If the groundwater runs out, agriculture dies. The only solution that the administration has proposed is to bring water from somewhere else. So, what we have to do is rethink the model in Doñana."

The regional government of the conservative Popular Party and the far right party VOX denies there's a problem with water. Rafael Segovia's president of VOX.

Rafael Segovia: "There is not a water problem. It's a lie, an artificial problem that has been created. Doñana is not in danger if we do these works."

International supermarket chains have already complained to the Andalucian government. Farmers are afraid that if a sustainable solution to the water problem is not found, they will lose their income.