“We haven't drunk tap water for about 14 months,” explains by phone Miguel Ángel Pérez, mayor of Humilladero, a town in Malaga with about 3,300 inhabitants with four pig farms and an oil factory.
“The City Council buys tanker trucks that it distributes every Monday and Thursday, first to bakeries, bars and restaurants and then to neighbors, who come to refill their jugs for free,” he continues.
Like them, some 214,000 people can no longer consume water due to nitrate contamination from agricultural and livestock sources, according to a report by Ecologists in Action - based on data from the Ministries of Health and Ecological Transition - presented this Thursday.
Furthermore, more than a third of the country's groundwater is already seriously affected by this contaminant.
State legislation considers that water is not suitable for human consumption when it exceeds 50 milligrams per liter (mg/l).
According to the latest available data - those for 2022, published by Health last January - at least 171 municipalities throughout Spain exceed that figure.
From this list, Ecologistas en Acción has calculated the affected population, although the figure will surely be higher because it only takes into account the registered inhabitants, not those who vacation or use certain facilities.
The majority of towns are located in empty Spain - Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, Andalusia -, where macro-farms and, above all, large intensive agricultural farms also tend to be located.
Two residents of Humilladero load jugs of drinking water into their car this Thursday.
Garcia-Santos
This is the case of Humilladero, a town of low white houses, one or two stories high, crossed by a road, surrounded by olive trees and located in the northern area of Malaga, the least populated.
“Water contamination may be due to slurry, but also to sewage from the oil factory, which before, when there were not so many controls, was thrown into the fields because they said it was good as fertilizer,” says the Malaga councilor.
“The main problem we have is that, due to the drought, the water table in the wells has dropped a lot, so the nitrates have been concentrated in a smaller amount of water, which has caused their concentration to skyrocket.
It's like pouring three sachets of sugar at once into a small cafe,” Pérez continues.
The result is that nitrates exceed 100 mg/l, more than double the permitted amount, meaning that the supply cannot be used for drinking or cooking, although it can be used for washing.
This Thursday, residents queued in front of the tanker truck with their jugs to collect drinking water.
The City Council spends about 85,000 euros per year on this service, an enormous amount for a small council.
Koldo Hernández, author of the environmental organization's report, explains to EL PAÍS: “It is very likely that in a case like Humilladero, the contamination of aquifers is due to macrofarms and agricultural fertilizers, but it is very difficult to prove. because it is diffuse contamination.
The facilities may even be complying with regulations.
And drought always causes the concentration of contaminants in groundwater to rise.”
According to the document presented this Thursday, water pollution by nitrates has its origin in the massive use of nitrogen fertilizers in intensive irrigated agriculture, as well as in intensive livestock macrofarms.
"Given that both economic activities continue to grow in our country, it is foreseeable that this pollution will also do so at the same rate, which damages aquifers and surface waters, in many cases almost irreversibly, and poses a serious risk to human health," they point out.
Several neighbors fill water jugs in Humilladero, this Thursday.
Garcia-Santos
The work also analyzes the state of other waters - not only those for human consumption - based on data requested from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and referring to 2022: 37% of groundwater exceeds the contamination allowed by nitrates (in this case , 37 mg/l) and the same occurs with 11% of surface waters (whose limit is 25 mg/l).
“The Government changed the limits with a decree in 2022, but we do not understand that it maintains 50 mg/l for human consumption.
A recent report in Denmark places 4 mg/l as the protection limit.
The effects can be headache, dizziness, fatigue, vomiting, congenital malformations and prevalence of colorectal cancer,” Hernández points out.
Intensify controls
The environmental NGO calls for intensifying controls on supply water to detect all non-compliance regarding nitrates.
“In 60% of the towns, sufficient controls are not carried out.
There is a serious lack of analysis of water for human consumption,” says the author of the report.
For this reason, it requires reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers by at least 20% - as indicated in the
European Union's
Farm to Fork strategy
- and limiting the expansion of macro-farms, preventing the opening of new facilities.
“Both activities are causing very significant environmental damage, in many cases irreversible,” the document points out.
Filling of drinking water jugs, this Thursday in Humilladero (Málaga).
Garcia-Santos
In addition, the organization demands that those economically responsible for the pollution (intensive livestock farming and agriculture) pay the extra costs of water purification, necessary due to their polluting actions.
“Any human activity, even if it seems idyllic, has its effect on the environment, which affects human health,” summarizes Hernández.
Back in Malaga, Miguel Ángel Pérez implores: “We have assumed that for now we will have to continue hiring tanker trucks.
Let's hope it rains as soon as possible, the level of the wells rises and the nitrates dissolve, so that we can drink tap water again."
Meanwhile, the neighbors wait with resignation for their turn in front of the truck every Monday and Thursday.
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