New report shows the critical situation of water in Doñana

The health of Spain's Doñana National Park is fully dependant on water but the aquifer that feeds Doñana’s marshes is drying up at an alarming speed. Hundreds of thousands of birds that are flying from Europe to spend the winter in Spain's Doñana National Park will find the marshes almost empty of water. Its deterioration is affecting rivers, marshes, lagoons, as well as the plants and animals that make Doñana unique.

Doñana’s aquifer would need between 30 and 60 years to recover completely from the current overexploitation. That would first require strong measures to be taken to end illegal and unsustainable water use, the report warns. The Spanish government admits in official reports that the huge underground water deposit that feeds the marshes has suffered a dramatic decline since the 1970s. Right now, water governance around Doñana is so weak that the amount of water extracted each year from the aquifer is unknown.
One of the natural features that makes Doñana unique in Europe is temporary lagoons, which are drying up at an appalling rate. As a result, 40 per cent of the species of dragonflies that lived in Doñana, associated to those lagoons, have been lost. The report published by WWF is one of the most thorough scientific analyses ever made about the state of water in Doñana, and the effects that the lack of this precious resource is having on ecosystems. I think the government know what they should do to save this.

http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?284570/New-report-shows-the-critical-situation-of-water-in-Doana-WWF-warns