Santa Olalla is the largest permanent lagoon in Doñana and the last one to hold water in August, but now it is dry. The lack of rain and the overexploitation of the aquifers has reduced it to a small puddle in the center to which waterfowl no longer go, explains the Doñana Biological Station in a statement. It is the third time that this has happened since there are records, which began in the 1970s. Santa Olalla was completely without water in 1983 and 1995. The drought that is hitting Spain, after a particularly dry winter and a spring and summer more warmer than normal, has caused restrictions in the consumption of water in some localities of the country. “If we don’t take action, the situation could be serious in the fall,” Jesús Vargas, a member of the Citizen Drought Observatory and a professor at the University of Seville, warned RTVE. Doñana and its important system of lagoons have historically been a refuge for fauna. Only a few are kept in water all summer, offering refuge to the first wading birds that migrate south after breeding in northern Europe. In addition, in summer the rice fields also offer an important refuge, explains the Doñana Biological Station – CSIC. “But things have changed. Doñana no longer has any permanent lagoons, while the area of rice fields planted this year is a third of normal due to lack of water,” explains Eloy Revilla, director of the Doñana Biological Station. -CSIC. “It hasn’t rained normally for years” The drought that Europe is suffering, especially intense in the Iberian Peninsula, is wreaking havoc in the natural space. However, the most worrying thing is that this comes from afar. “It’s been years since it rained normally. Doñana has had precipitation levels below average for ten consecutive years,” says Revilla. Wetlands and the species that depend on them, such as waterfowl, are particularly affected and are forced to move in search of areas that maintain available water during the harshest times of the dry season. The Santa Olalla lagoon is the the only one that was maintained with permanent water from a rosary of large lagoons that form in the lee of the impressive chain of dunes that separates the marsh from the Atlantic Ocean. Its origin is in the discharge of water from the Doñana aquifer in this area, which generates an explosion of life. These and other natural values have made Doñana considered a National Park and Biosphere Reserve. However, the continuous exploitation of the aquifer by intensive agriculture and extraction for human consumption, also in years as dry as This means that not only the temporary lagoons have disappeared from Doñana, but also the permanent ones are threatened. The statement specifies that the lagoons are mainly affected by the water withdrawals of the town of Matalascañas, which in summer increases its water consumption. exponentially with the arrival of tens of thousands of tourists, raising its population from a few thousand inhabitants to a hundred thousand people. The effect of water consumption by tourists is so intense that piezometers -the wells that measure the depth at which the water level of the aquifer is found-, they detect the differences between weekdays and weekends, when consumption is much or older. They even identify the difference between day and night, when people sleep and spend less water. “We know, from the times that have happened before, that it is not only the drought that is the cause of the disappearance of the permanent lagoons in Doñana. The overexploitation of the Doñana aquifer is also responsible,” explains Revilla. An aquifer is overexploited when more water is extracted from it than is recharged when it rains, something that has been happening in Doñana for many years. According to the records, the lagoon was left completely without water in 1983 and 1995 EFE/Bank of EBD images/CSIC They ask to restrict the use of waterThe Scientific, Technological and Singular Infrastructure – Doñana Biological Reserve, dependent on the Doñana CSIC Biological Station , has installed a monitoring camera in the lagoon to see its evolution. On August 31, Santa Olalla was dry, parched and cracked, reduced to a tiny puddle of water and mud. Surprisingly, on September 1, after many people have already returned to their homes, it is observed that some springs and springs sprout again from which the largest permanent lagoon in Doñana is nourished. Faced with this situation, the director of the Doñana Biological Station – CSIC calls for measures to be accelerated to eliminate the underground water intakes of Matalascañas, and that, in the meantime, restrictions be imposed on the use of water in the urbanization, at least in years in which the lagoons are in situations as extreme as this. “It cannot be that while the grass in Matalascañas continues to be watered, the Doñana lagoons dry up completely,” he concludes.