Spanish court orders cleanup of Galician pig farm pollution in landmark ruling
Spain, Europe's largest pork producer, houses about a third of its pig farms in Galicia.
The court found that for some 20,000 residents of the A Limia area, the fundamental right to living in a healthy environment had been violated.
The ruling, condemning both state and regional authorities, marks the first time a European court has addressed the impact of large-scale livestock farming on water sources and residents' human rights, according to environmental groups ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth Spain, which supported the case.
It could pave the way for other communities suffering from similar issues to demand justice and protection from authorities, campaigners say.
A Limia residents say life has become "unfeasible" due to the proliferation of intensive pig and poultry farms, which brought unbearable odours and contamination from chemicals such as nitrates that seeped into groundwater and water reservoirs.
The court stated that regional authorities and the national body overseeing water management failed to act despite legal obligations and awareness of the issues. Government and regional officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ruling can be appealed at Spain's Supreme Court.
The court in Galicia ordered that the Galician regional government and the Mino-Sil Hydrographic Confederation take immediate measures to eliminate odours and environmental degradation around the As Conchas water reservoir.
The ruling also mandates authorities to ensure clean and safe drinking water free of harmful microorganisms and chemical substances.
"Now the authorities have to take action," Pablo Alvarez Veloso, head of the neighbours' association in the As Conchas reservoir area, told Reuters.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Terrified woman forced to sleep in CAR after more than 500 bats invade Scots home
Scroll down to see the what Anne-Marie is dealing with HOME INVASION Terrified woman forced to sleep in CAR after more than 500 bats invade Scots home Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A TERRIFIED homeowner told how she's been forced to sleep in her car - because BATS have moved into her house. Spooked Anne-Marie Murchie has a colony of more than 500 of the winged creatures in her walls and roof. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Anne-Marie Murchie revealed she's being forced to sleep in her car Credit: Anne-Marie Murchie / Facebook 4 She posted a video on Facebook showing one of the creatures Credit: Anne-Marie Murchie / Facebook But because they're protected by law there is nothing she can do about the scary lodgers. And the taxi driver, from Aberdeen, revealed she's the one who's been forced out of her own gaff. Because she can no longer cope with the racket she's working nights and often kipping in her motor to escape. Anne-Marie said: 'I'm living in fear every day. "I'm scared to come into the house. Sometimes I actually sleep outside in the car. I'm just petrified. "The noise is horrendous, it's like running water. But I think it's all the wings going together, like flapping. "It never stops. They get louder at about five or six at night and then when they come in at five in the morning. But they're constantly making noise. I wonder if they sleep." Anne-Marie initially thought she had mice or a wasps's nest after hearing strange noises at her home. She told the BBC she called in pest control experts who revealed the problem was being caused by bats. Since then she's 'flipped' after she found one hiding in her toilet roll holder and others in her living room and kitchen. Snooker star bats away WASP on live TV during World Grand Prix leaving TNT Sports commentator baffled She revealed her anxiety has spiralled through the roof as she's plagued by noises and smells. But animal experts have warned that she can't do anything that will impact the colony of soprano pipistrelles, Britain's most common type of bats. At one point she moved out and is now spending as much time as she can on the road to avoid her winged tenants. She said: 'It's sad that you can't do anything about it in your own home. "I feel like the rules should change a bit. Surely someone can come in that's licensed and take them away to somewhere humanely?" It's hoped the bats will move on in the next few weeks and once they're gone Anne-Marie will be allowed to seal up the spots they've squeezed in through. A spokesman for Naturescot said: ''With regard to what you can do with them, actually nothing. 'They are a protected species under European protection laws and Scottish and UK laws. "So the bats themselves can't be touched, nor can the roosts.'' 4 Bats are a protected species Credit: Getty
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
At least 60 dead as giant inferno rips through high-rise supermarket with horror footage showing building gutted in Iraq
BLAZE DISASTER At least 60 dead as giant inferno rips through high-rise supermarket with horror footage showing building gutted in Iraq Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) AT least 60 people have died after a massive fire ripped through a high-rise supermarket in Iraq. The blaze at the newly-opened six-storey Hyper Mall in the city of Kut, where men, women and children were shopping at the time. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 Footage shows the massive fire in the building 3 A fire truck stands next to the wreckage of a five-storey shopping center Credit: Reuters 3 Military personnel members sit in a vehicle near the wreckage of a shopping center Credit: Reuters The blaze broke out late Wednesday, reportedly starting on the first floor before rapidly engulfing the building. Though the fire was eventually contained, firefighters continued searching for missing victims. Civil defence teams rescued more than 45 people who were trapped inside the five-storey building, which includes a restaurant and a supermarket, the interior ministry said. "The tragic fire claimed the lives of 61 innocent citizens, most of whom suffocated in bathrooms, and among them 14 charred bodies yet to be identified," the interior ministry said in a statement. Dozens of people gathered outside the hospital checking ambulances as they arrived, some of them overcome with emotion. One of them, Nasir al-Quraishi, a doctor in his 50s, said he lost five family members in the fire. More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun
Spectator
2 days ago
- Spectator
Where did ‘husband' come from?
'Am I housebound?' asked my husband as I was discussing with him the complicated history of the name for his role in life. 'No, darling,' I said. 'You're the one in the house who just is or lives there.' Only later did I tell him that the word bond, behind the -band of husband, sank in worth with the years, following the same path as boor, churl and peasant. Whereas I as a housewife enjoy a comparatively transparent label, any husband's title is obscure. It is simply a house-bond, but the first element of husband, hus-, no longer seems like house, and the -bond element is often mistaken for a form of bond, a separate word to do with binding. The bond in husband derives from words in Norse languages with related meanings 'to live, dwell, to cultivate, to build'. Old English had a connected word, buan, 'to dwell', and these all came from the ancient Indo-European word that gave us be, as well as the Latin fui and the Greek stem phu- (hence physics). The history of the English word be finds cousins in Persian, Russian and Irish. Anyway, before the Norman Conquest, bonda in English meant a freeman, like a ceorl (churl), below a noble thane but above a servile worker. After the Normans came, the churl sank from freeman to a tenant bound to a lord, and bonde in Middle English became equivalent to a villein or serf, and then to a slave. It was at this stage that the word became confused with bond as in bondage. In husband, the fossilised -band was insulated from these developments in meaning. Husbandry meant at first management of a household, an obsolete sense, of which we retain only husbanding of resources. Husbandry was the task of a husbandman, cultivating the soil. The husband as master of the house came to mean the correlative of a housewife, to whom he'd be married. Strangely some men in the Middle Ages, such as Richard Husewif (1192), had the word as a surname; perhaps it was taken as a role independent of sex. My husband certainly couldn't be mistaken for one.
