Twelve associations have filed a complaint today with the Nafarroa Ombudsman for “the abandonment of functions of the Government of Navarra when acting on those agricultural and livestock activities that are polluting the Marcilla aquifer, and that are putting the public health of the population ”.
The associations that have filed the complaint are Alnus, Compañía de las 3 Erres, Ecologistas en Acción, Ekologistak Martxan, Etxalde, Fundación Sustrai Erakuntza, Greenpeace, Hacendera, Lurra, Marcilla Vive, Urbizi and REAS), who recall that in August it was notified to the Navarrese Government the contamination by high levels of nitrate in the Valtraviesa ravine.
Along with this, they point out that “with unusual speed” the Circular Economy and Climate Change Service responds by acknowledging nitrate pollution, but pointing out that it is a complex problem and promising to investigate it. It also recommends that the Martzilla City Council use the water from the Itoitz reservoir due to contamination.
“It so happens that in this area there is a great development of intensive industrial livestock farming, both due to the establishment of new and large farms, as well as the use of farmland to pour their slurry into them. Apparently there is poor management of manure and slurry, and in particular, there is evidence that some plots would be used by several farms at the same time. This implies a risk of over-fertilization, and therefore contamination by nitrates. It is also relevant to indicate that among the cattle farms that use the aforementioned lands as dumps for their slurry is the Caparroso Valle de Odieta macrofarm, “explain the groups that have filed the complaint.
These groups denounce that the actions of the Navarrese government incurs “lack of transparency, efficiency and forcefulness to identify and eliminate polluting activities that represent a danger to public and environmental health” and demand that public controls be increased to the activities of the macro-farms and “stop their disproportionate expansion.”
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