One of the most biodiverse nature reserves in Europe – Albufera National Park in Spain – has been littered with tons of plastic garbage, car wrecks and pharmaceutical products. The waste is related to the floods that hit Valencia.
The Albufera Lagoon, the main part of the Albufera National Park, is a natural reserve with unique biodiversity. It is located south of Valencia. It is home to at least 372 species of birds, as well as endangered freshwater fish such as the Spanish valencia (Valencia hispanica). This ecosystem, unusual in terms of biodiversity, was littered with flood waste – refrigerators, car wrecks, gasoline canisters and the like.
“It's terrible to see a landscape that has been turned into a dumping ground for toxic waste,” said Eva Saldana, director of Greenpeace in Spain.
At the end of October, flash floods hit southern and eastern Spain. Valencia was most affected, with entire towns under water. Although the water has receded, the situation is still critical in many places. Car wrecks lie in the streets and thousands of houses are uninhabitable.
Harmful waste
Albufera National Park is a place full of paddy fields – they make up two thirds of its area. Rice is a valuable raw material for the Spaniards, it is the basis of the traditional paella dish. Unfortunately, a large part of the park is currently polluted by sewage that is virtually impossible to dilute. They flow into the reserve from non-functioning sewage treatment plants and damaged canals.
Carlos Sanchis, a researcher who chairs the park's governing board and helps coordinate volunteers collecting waste, noted that high concentrations of pharmaceutical products were recorded in the samples.
“Analysis of their impact on soil and wildlife will have to come later and will depend on the work we do now,” Sanchis said.