Two administrators of an agricultural company in Almonte, in the Spanish province of Huelva, have been sentenced by the Criminal Court 4 of Huelva to 1 year and 6 months in jail for illegally extracting groundwater from aquifer 27, which supplies water to Doñana, for the irrigation of their berry plantations. They had been doing this for years without the authorization of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG).
For the ruling, it has been taken into account that the defendants had already closed seven wells by November 2018, and that they have confessed everything, collaborating with the administration of Justice and renouncing their defense evidence.
They have been held responsible for a crime against natural resources and the environment, with a severe threat of seriously damaging the balance of the natural systems. In addition to the jail sentence, they will have to pay a 1,800 Euro fine and have been banned from working in the agricultural sector for 6 months. The company has been ordered to pay another 6,000 Euro fine. The prison sentences have been suspended for two years on the condition that no more crimes will be committed and the fines will be paid within that period. They must also close the rest of the wells and compensate the Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir (CHG) for damages; a total of around 70,000 Euro that the agency must devote to the improvement of the Doñana Natural Area.
The defendants have acknowledged that they carried out groundwater extractions through a company devoted to the cultivation of strawberries from 2009 to 2013. This was done in several plots owned by the City Council of 'La Cañada', where they had 34 hectares of crops.
The company is estimated to have extracted 1.2 million cubic meters of water and obtained a production exceeding 11 million kilos.
Source: Efe / andaluciainformacion.es