JUDGES in Granada are seeing if any criminal charges can be answered after the Guardia Civil found “irregularities” in a Lecrin Valley mineral water bottling plant.
Officials from the environmental branch of the police force (Seprona) found the plant lies across three barrancos (ravines).
They also discovered natural water sources had been altered and channelled.
“The problem may not be a penal one, but possibly an administrative infraction,” the police report states.
The probe follows a complaint by the main opposition to the project, the Platform in Defence of Water from the Lecrin Valley.
The group also claims the company behind the bottling plant does not possess the necessary documentation and that the process of desertification will be sped up as a result of the project.
“The Lecrin Valley clearly lacks the hydrographical resources to support something such as this. The spectre of drought looms large here,” spokesman Manuel Puertas said.
With a regional government grant of more than one million euros and a loan of two million euros, Sevilla-based Aguas Minerales de Sierra Nevada SL wants to extract up to 31 litres of water per second from underground reserves in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Leftist group Izquierda Union has also voiced its concerns over the project, asking the Supreme Court of Andalucía to investigate the Junta’s backing.
Supporters claim the bottling plant will generate employment in nearby towns and villages.
Dear Editor,
Thank goodness you have picked up the impending disaster of the Bottling Plant (Aguas Minerales de Sierra Nevada) at the foot of the Sierra Nevada National Park, overlooking the village of Durcal. You put it on the front page, well done.
This is a catastrophe in the making- (environmentally)- not only for the water extraction but the proposed 80 juggernauts a day to enter and leave the Plant via a (mostly) one track winding road, and bang next to a residential estate.
Not only will the villagers of Durcal loose their access to public water, but, more importantly, the area and aquifers around Durcal and Padul are supplied by the natural waters of the Rio Durcal from this part of the Sierra Nevada; the areas will dry out and that will be the end of that!
There are many citizens of Durcal I know to be opposed to this plant.
Your newspaper is doing an excellent job in exposing these potential “disasters”, and this one I believe will be hugely contested, only for its´desertification which in no doubt will come because of it.
If you need any more info, I am happy to help. I live right below the plant!!
If you wish to print this letter, please do not mention my name in full, thanks.
Rosalind Eyre
tel 677150641