It has happened again, and for the first time in history, the phenomenon is repeated for the second consecutive summer. These days, the existing zacayones – sinkholes that reach the aquifer – are being excavated and cleaned, as an emergency solution for the fauna to drink.

At the beginning of September 2022, news broke that had not occurred since 1995: the Santa Olalla lagoon, deep and very emblematic in the Doñana Natural Area, had completely lost its water. Today, three weeks before last year, the same event is repeated due to a drought that does not give respite to this World Heritage Site, which has accumulated a decade with below-average rainfall.

Díaz Paniagua has been in Doñana for several days and has verified the situation in situ. “There is a trickle of water left in the southern zone, which comes out of the aquifer, but which does not produce a sheet of water larger than the palm of my hand,” he explains.. “There is mud and there are turtles inside it to take advantage of the humidity,” he adds.. The situation in Santa Olalla can be seen live thanks to the cameras installed by the EBD.

Of course, the rest of the Doñana wetlands are also dry, like the Dulce lagoon, also considered permanent. Faced with this crisis, measures have been applied for the survival of part of the fauna. For the domestic – the cattle authorized to graze inside – troughs have been placed, although some were already fixed. For the wild we use the zacayones. Paniagua yesterday supervised the work of a tractor that cleaned and deepened one of the 200 existing zacayones in Doñana. When this water emerges, fauna – of all kinds, from wings to amphibians or mammals – are offered a place to quench their thirst.

The EBD – an entity dependent on the CSIC – carries out this task on the portion of Doñana under its responsibility, the Biological Reserve. «Last year a few were cleaned and there are 3 or 4 available near Santa Olalla, and in the middle of the mountain about 10. The water is drinkable, since what was left in the lagoon was very salty,” says the biologist. «The result is very beautiful, because immediately the animals approach. Even wild boars and foxes dig a hole to get to the water if it hasn't surfaced.

In the northern part of the reserve, “which has no water, we have had to dig to get to the groundwater, so that large mammals can drink it.”. What is tremendous is how deep one has to dig; We have even seen cork oaks on top of some zacayón that have remained dry ».

According to Paniagua, other administrations apply themselves to the same task, such as the case of the State in the Marismillas farm, owned by it. The Board also did the same last year on its farms north of the reserve. In any case, the Board, manager of the Doñana Natural Area, must authorize the cleaning or deepening. In the case of wanting to open new zacayones, you must have permission from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation.

Paniagua believes that placing troughs for wildlife is not a solution because of the operation that would involve filling them, and because the troughs provide better benefits. “We went the next day and some offered half a meter of water.”

The desiccation of Santa Olalla is due to the lack of rainfall and the extraction of water from the underground aquifer to supply Matalascañas, the tourist center that in summer reaches 160,000 residents and a consumption of around 2 cubic hectometres.. The Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation announced that it will eliminate the wells near Santa Olalla to reopen others further away.

Doñana has some 2,000 temporary lagoons on the margin of the marsh, but today they are considered missing, and even in some the basin is completely full of mountain vegetation.

The situation of the World Heritage Park is under controversy due to the decision of the Junta de Andalucía to classify as irrigable between 1,000 and 1,500 hectares -depending on the source- of strawberry crops.

This law is being processed in an accelerated manner by Parliament despite the forceful opposition of the European Commission -which threatens Spain with million-dollar fines-, the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Unesco, half of the farmers in the area – in particular from Almonte-, 25 scientific societies and 1,109 scientists. The PP plans have the support of Vox and the strawberry farmers who would benefit from the expectation of a water that does not exist. Miguel Delibes, president of the Doñana Participation Council, compared it in Parliament to “selling AVE tickets from Seville to Huelva.”