Doñana National Park, Spain

The Doñana National Park is one of the largest protected areas in the European Union.

It is recognised as a special area of conservation because it is inhabited by numerous species of rare and endangered birds and is the most important migratory bird stopping point in southern Europe.

Doñana comprises delta waters, which flood in winter and then drop in the spring leaving rich deposits of silt and raised sandbanks and islands.

In April 1998, a storage dam at the Aznalcollar mine broke releasing toxic sludge.

The sludge spread 40 kilometres downstream from the broken dam, into the Guadalquivir River system. The Spanish authorities managed to save the Doñana Park, from the highly toxic waters by constructing artificial earth banks to contain the flood.

There are increased levels of acidity, zinc, copper, manganese and cadmium in the Agrio River and removing arsenic from the soil is proving difficult.

Thousands of farmers saw their crops ruined. The farming community of Aznalcazar alone lost 3,500 hectares (8,645 acres) of fields growing rice, cotton and citrus fruit.

Some 250 farmers and 500 day-jobbers were estimated to have "lost everything". The fisheries industry has also been badly hit. "We wanted to save the birds, and ended up poisoning our own food," said Manuel Nunez, the chairman of the local fishing association.

The spill was Spain's worst environmental disaster with thousands of fish and birds dying as areas along the Guadimar River were devastated.

The Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) suspects that the whole mine suffers from major structural faults and doubts exist as to whether the walls of the broken dam are stable enough and about the new waste site's impermeability.

Despite continuing concern the company involved has received an economic subsidy from the European Union (through the Ministry of Industry in Spain).

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