Full details on page 23
ISSUE NO. 1654
16 - 22 March 2017
A XARQUÍA - C OSTA T ROPICAL
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
Rivers at risk Planned diversion of water condemned
By Matt Ford Ecologists and conservationists have issued a stark warning over what is increasingly viewed as an unsustainably rapid expansion of the subtropical fruit sector in Axarquia. The Andalucian Network of New Water Culture (GENA) issued a joint statement alongside the Cabinet for the State of Nature in Axarquia (managed by Ecologists in Action; EeA), in which the two groups point out the threat to rivers throughout the region and further afield. According to the coordinator of GENA-EeA, Rafael Yus, the breakneck speed at which the cultivation of mango and avocado has developed in Axarquia “has exceeded sensible limits, and threatens to mortgage the water supply for human use across Malaga Province, as occurred recently in the Antequera region.” Of primary concern are demands by local growers to construct a water transfer to Axarquia from the Rio Guadiaro, the region’s most wellpreserved drainage basin which flows from the Sierra Bermeja in Malaga and through the Sierra de Grazalema before discharging into the Mediterranean at Sotogrande in Cadiz Province. The river is notable since there are no major dams con-
WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
Royal rounds THE Spanish State Visit to the UK between June 6-8 will celebrate close ties between our two countries and our two peoples, said British Ambassador Simon Manley. Nearly 300,000 Britons are registered as residents in Spain and 18 million visitors came from the UK last year, whilst more than 132,000 Spaniards are resident in the UK and two See page 2 million visited in 2015.
Looking up JANET HAYDEN, a British 70-year-old, who was threatened with eviction from her home in La Viñuela, has received news from her bank that they are now willing to discuss
her situation. Ms Hayden, who built a house on a plot of land in the area in 2003, had been on hunger strike since March 1, after facing eviction in early See page 5 April.
Community spirit AROUND 1,000 people came out to be tested as bone marrow donors at the Granada Blood Transfusion Centre, to support the family of Daniel, an 8-year-old boy from Almuñecar with adrenoleukody-
TROPICAL FRUIT: Damage may be irreversible. structed on it, while some of the only remaining coastal marshland on the Costa del Sol can be found at its mouth. It is also home to one of the last remaining populations of European eel in Mediterranean Spain, and contains a number of important native fish species such as the Malaga chub which is locally endemic. Already under pressure due to water extraction for golf and introduction of invasive species, GENA-EeA believe that the plan for the Guadiaro reflects the “unsustainable subtropical model, which dis-
plays all the characteristics of an economic bubble.” The increase in production of the fruits has happened in a very short space of time, and the groups say that unless proper planning is undertaken “the damage may be irreversible, as has happened with illegal house construction... it could destroy the last remaining pristine rivers and cause species to become extinct.” Yus confirmed that the groups are to stage a canoe protest on the Guadiaro on
strophy, a genetic disorder which damages the brain’s nerve cells. Daniel’s family were delighted by the support shown by their community. See page 6
Win a Car! Saturday March 18 in order to demonstrate their disgust at the perceived short-termism and lack of respect for the environment.
YOU CAN STILL BE THE WINNER OF A CAR! SEE PAGES 8 - 9