Hidden in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León on Monday, there was something that they did not suspect would be controversial: the authorization to install more than 3,500 heads of pigs on the outskirts of San Cebrián de Castro, province of Zamora.
Why would it be controversial? As recognized in the Diario de Zamorais the umpteenth authorization of this type in recent years and, unlike others, this macro farm is not close to any urban center.
The only small problem is that, well, it is 100 meters from the Ricobayo reservoir, right where the Esla flows into the Duero.
And is that a problem? The idea is to install a pig farm “with capacity for 3,100 sows with piglets until weaning (from 0 to 6 kilos in weight), with 620 replacement sows and six boars.” Just over 132,000 square meters, more than a dozen warehouses, a manure dump with a capacity for 1,215 cubic meters and two enormous slurry ponds with a capacity for 14,000 cubic meters.
The project insists that “there will be no discharge into the Public Hydraulic Domain”; but, of course, the doubts are more than reasonable. In 2023, 161 Zamora municipalities They were left without drinking water due to contamination of its reservoirs.
Because there is also the issue of water consumption. According to the data, an annual water consumption is estimated at 24,479 cubic meters. It’s a lot of water, but it’s not a surprise either: agriculture and livestock consume almost 90% of the Duero basin. And Ricobayo is a critical reservoir
And not only for the Northern Plateau. Because what is happening in the Esla River is something much more important than it seems. Spain It is the absolute leader in European porkbut (or “because”) the legal framework is too fragmented and has huge regulatory gaps. That is to say, the basic management of intensive farms has been broken for years.
The sum of an unambitious basic state standard, hydrological plans, municipal plans and environmental authorizations leaves room for dozens of towns throughout the country to spend years denouncing the enormous ecological and health consequences of this type of installations.
All of this comes at a difficult time. Because the macro farm industry is about to reach its key moment: it is not only that the administration is following The closest issue is that the prosecution is taking cards in the matter.
That is to say, in the near future, Spain is going to have to clarify what it wants to be at an agricultural level and at what cost. But you can’t do it with your back to the externalities it produces. The competitiveness of Spanish pork is based on vertical integration, efficiency and scale; and that pushes farms to have greater capacity and associated plants (feed, slurry treatment, biogas, etc.). That is, it puts completely new pressure on parts of the system that are not prepared to withstand it.
Water is one of those problems. The Spanish water reserve is at 51.4% of its capacity and we have just emerged from one of the largest droughts in recent decades: how is it possible that a strategic resource like water enjoys these management problems (and this lack of protection)? That question is indeed more complex than it seems.
In Xataka | The Atlas of Toxic Spain: this is the geography of pollution in our country
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings