It’s a valid question. When a company draws water from a well sunk into the water table and then bottles it for sale, arguably depleting a municipality’s public water supply, is that acceptable?

Well, you might argue, the Town Hall gave them permission to extract the water, but in the case of Dúrcal and Padul, they didn’t. No, because the Junta de Andalucía considers that the massive extraction of water is of public interest and therefore the Town Hall has no say in it. That, at least, is what the Mayor of Dúrcal claims. 

Interestingly, the accompanying photo is from Google Street View, dated March 2023, and it is barely dribbling whereas  now it has been dry for nearly two years.

Locals are incensed by this situation, especially after El Pilar del Mono and the La Mina de Agua dried up, something that was unheard of. 

But it gets worse because the company has requested before the Junta permission to extract a greater amount, which is being considered, yet, nobody is sure if the company has been extracting water from the ground in greater quantities than was originally permitted anyway, many locals consider.

Could Dúrcal Town Hall do anything about this exploitation of the municipality’s water resources? Well, whether they can or not is perhaps not the best weapon that locals have at their disposal because if people were to decide to boycott this bottled water (sold well below the price of other brands) in local supermarkets, just for a start, then pressure could be brought to bear.

There is a protest platform that makes itself visible in the Town Council meetings but according to their representative, their protests are not acted upon. They consider that the Mayor is just producing soundbytes whilst ducking responsibility. 

When I last spoke with the Mayor outside the Town Hall, he was showing signs of being under pressure and soon after published a long video on social media explaining the situation, claiming that he has bombarded the various administrations, bringing the situation to their attention, but has rarely received any reply, let alone justification for allowing the bottling company to increase even further its extraction quota.

Yet, the protest platform accuses the Mayor of doing exactly the same; ignoring their written complaints. They consider that the video is merely his attempt to justify his “inaction,” and lack of support. 

Furthermore, they not only demand that he closes down the installations but also clamps down both on a proliferation of illegal wells on private land and excessive domestic consumption because the average for Dúrcal is one third higher than the limit stipulated per inhabitant.

Public opinion is almost unanimous at laying the blame for the drying up of the springs at the door of the water-bottling company.

(News: Durcal, Valle de Lecrin, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Water-Bottling Plants, Water Table, Springs Dried Up, Junta de Andalucia

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