Staff Reporter
AN environmental organisation in Spain has warned that growing avocados in the surroundings of the Guadiaro River in the Andalucia region is ‘stealing the water from the equivalent of 40,000 inhabitants a year’.
Verdemar-Ecologistas en Accion has also denounced what it calls the ‘passivity’ of the Andalusian regional government in the face of this phenomenon, as well as that of public prosecutors specialising in environmental cases.
“Major magnates are going to jeopardise the entire physiographic unity of one of the most abundant rivers in the eastern Mediterranean,” the organisation denounced, according to a report in Malaga Hoy.
The Guadiaro River runs through the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz, and has already been a cause celebre for campaigning groups.
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Last year there were protests against the use of water from the river for agriculture, as well as the felling of trees in the area, and the appearance of hundreds of dead fish.
Verdemar claims that avocado crops have seen demand for water rise to 500 litres a second, affecting the flow of the river as well as levels of the water table.
Spain boasts the ideal conditions for growing avocados, but the crop has long been controversial due to the amount of water needed for cultivation.
The tropical fruits are known as ‘green gold’ thanks to their value for producers, and they are also considered a ‘superfood’ thanks to their aiding digestion, containing more potassium than a banana, and being rich in fibre.
