It’s not only residents of the Valle de Lecrín, specifically from Padul, that are protesting over the planned water, bottling plant but Town Halls, too.
The protest march held through Padul towards the end of last month demonstrates the breadth of opposition to the private company planning to use the water to bottle and sell as spring water.
The plant itself will be located — if not stopped — in the tiny municipality of Villamena, just a kilometre or so from the Padul wetlands (Laguna de Padul). We ran an article on this in last month’s magazine but we decided to make this a front-page issue for September, as the protests are far from waning.
It was the Plataforma Pro Defensa del Agua en el Valle de Lecrín which organised the protest march, which was accompanied by municipal-level politicians , and scores of locals. The slogan on many banners read, You Don’t Sell Off Water; You Defend It, which was aimed at the administration that is permitting this project; i.e., The Junta de Andalucia.
The thing is that the water-bottling plan has been approved even though it is slap, bang, next to a highly protected area of natural importance, included within the Convenio de Ramsar since January 2006.
Now, this is the same Junta de Andalucía that gave the go-ahead to a land owner in La Herradura to cut down around 100 pines, right in the heart of a pine forest, so that it could be turned over to tropical-fruit cultivation, despite a completely lack of water, not only in the present, but in the future. If a fire wipes out 100 trees, then everybody cries out in horror, but if the Junta mysteriously give its approval, well that sort of loss is not a problem, it seems.
Without further digression, the provincial office of the Junta gave permission in July for a private company to suck up water at a rate of eight litres a second over the next 25 years, stating that the chosen site “is not in a type of protected space, although it is next to the Lagunas de Padul.” The Junta cites a 2019 study by the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME) that reports all is in line with all legal requirements and would not affect the wetlands.”
Finally, the Mayor of Villamena, Manuel Luis Vílchez, is firmly against the project and intends do all that is within his power (legally) to fight against it. In the meantime, the next protest is programmed for the 7th of September at 12.30h outside the provincial offices of the Junta and the protest platform has requested that the Town Halls lay on buses.
(News/Noticias: Dúrcal, Valle de Lecrín, Granada, Andalucia)