The intensive use of phytosanitary products in agriculture causes almost a third of surface water in Spain to exceed the legal limit of pesticides, according to the Water Quality Report (2010-2023) of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Pesticides are, basically, chemical products applied to crops to eliminate fungi, unwanted plant species or insects. In Spain, at least since 2015, An average of 75,0000 tons are sold per year.according to the Ministry of Agriculture – although in the latest data available the 2022 statistics collected a total of 56,000 tons, an annual drop of 25% at once. The evaluation of the Ministry of Ecological Transition explains that “the presence of pesticide substances [en el agua] “It is related to the use of phytosanitary products in agriculture.”
The Government report admits in its conclusions that “we must note the large number of non-compliance detected throughout Spain” in the 2023 analyzes on these substances. Almost 30% of the control stations in the country as a whole exceed “the border value” set in the regulations.
Above the national average there are demarcations where the intensive irrigation sector stands out: in Segura the non-compliance exceeds 52% of the control stations, in Guadiana 49%, in the River Basin of Catalonia they reach 41% %, the same percentage as in the Júcar and Guadalquivir, according to this report that also addresses the situation of other contaminants such as nitrates or the salinization of aquifers –derived from livestock waste, the application of fertilizers or the overexploitation of aquifers–.
Although he Ministry of Ecological Transition admits that “they are essential for agricultural production” and that “many crops would not be viable or could not be stored” without them, pesticides in water are a danger to biodiversity by being able to “eliminate the fauna and flora in the environment.” atmosphere”. Furthermore, “if the concentration of a pesticide is higher than its environmental quality standard, it may have adverse effects on the aquatic environment and human health.”
Also related to the intensive use of pesticides, measurements carried out in soils in the European Union – including Spanish soils – have shown unexpectedly high concentrations of these products after using them. Levels, in fact, well above what was calculated to occur when the permits were given that authorized the application of these compounds to crops.
In this sense, the Spanish Food Agency (Aesan) has found up to 106 different types of pesticides in foods that reached consumers in 2022. Most of these foods were fruits.
However, in this same 2024, the European Commission has ended up withdrawing its proposed regulation to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% throughout the European Union by 2030. The tractor-trailers driven by the primary sector that arrived in Brussels and They crossed Spain or France – a few months before the European elections – and the vote against the European Parliament made the president of the EC, Ursula von der Layen, withdraw the proposal. “More dialogue and a different approach is needed,” he said.
Along these lines, the Ministry of Agriculture has had to back down this week its project for a new National Plan for the Sustainable Use of Phytosanitary Products in the face of opposition from eight autonomous communities such as the Region of Murcia or Estremadura. Agriculture said in that plan that “Spain has, in recent years, great work to make the use of phytosanitary products more rational every day” and that the indicators show reductions in the use of pesticides above those established in the European Union strategy. But the objective of the plan to “continue on the path of reduction” has provoked the rejection of these autonomous governments. “It is premature,” the Extremaduran Board has described, arguing that the European Commission itself has frozen its draft new regulations.
In light of the water analysis, the pesticide use data – which the Ministry of Agriculture calls “admirable” – has not been sufficient to avoid this “large number of non-compliance” in terms of the presence of high concentrations of pesticides in rivers. , lakes and wetlands throughout Spain.
Aquifers with nitrates and salt
Just nine months ago, a review of 2022 data on water analysis from the Ministry of Health carried out by Ecologistas en Acción, revealed that more than 200,000 people in 171 municipalities in Spain had tap water contaminated by agricultural and livestock chemical remains. The nitrate levels exceeded the limit set by regulations for human consumption.
Now, the Government’s quality report confirms that this type of contamination affects, above all, groundwater. More than a third have a nitrate concentration above the maximum marked in the regulations from 2022 of 37.5 mg of NO3 per liter. And another 29% are in an intermediate warning zone (between 10 mg and 37.5 mg per liter).
Water pollution by nitrates “is caused mainly by intensive agricultural production, the most important diffuse source being the excessive or inadequate application of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture and intensive farms,” the document recalls.
This compound affects water mainly through the eutrophication process. This is an excess of nutrients in the environment that multiplies the growth of phytoplankton and other species “causing disorders in the balance of the ecosystem,” indicates Ecological Transition. Sometimes it is so sudden that there are “invasive or blooms”. This is what happened in the Mar Menor when the so-called green soup which caused an ecological collapse in the lagoon.
Furthermore, the evaluation of Spanish waters warns that there is a “very high concentration of chlorides in groundwater in the basins of the Mediterranean slope.” That is, salt is invading the aquifers, which makes them useless to supply a population, but also to irrigate fields.
“The mixture of 2% or 3% seawater makes the extracted water inappropriate for most uses,” highlights an analysis of the consequences of marine intrusion from the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME).
And, precisely, the excessive pumping of water from underground masses to crops is behind this invasion called marine intrusion. By overexploiting an aquifer, the level of water underground drops and the balance that maintains the salt water of the adjacent sea is broken. This, as it moves inward, contaminates the sweet liquid of the aquifer with salt.
As the report highlights, the worst situation – with chloride levels higher than the 250 mg/l threshold set by law – occurs in the coastal aquifers of the Mediterranean area. In the Segura Demarcation, 52% of the stations exceeded that limit (of which 13% went to more than 1,000 mg/l). In the Balearic Islands, the excessive concentration affects 38% (more than 10% exceed the level of 1,000 mg). In the Andalusian Mediterranean Basins it is 21%, in the Guadalquivir, 19% and in the Fluvial District of Catalonia, 16%.
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