Shellfish collectors and farmers in Spain's northern Galicia region fear a massive cellulose factory, the largest in Europe, will pollute the water, endangering their traditional way of life.
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00:00Ana Maria Corres Mugan struggles with what a devastating storm has left on the shellfish
00:07banks at the coast of Galicia's island of Barosa in Spain.
00:12Tons of algae.
00:15We have to remove it quickly.
00:17And look how much we have to remove.
00:20You'll see how much shellfish will survive this.
00:26These ones are cockles.
00:28And look, now they have come to the top.
00:30They were suffocating.
00:32Now we have to leave the place clean and they will bury themselves again.
00:38Ana Maria is a shellfish collector and like most here has dedicated her whole life to
00:43this traditional job in the north of Spain.
00:46But it's become more difficult.
00:48Extreme weather events and pollution can easily spoil her harvest.
00:52Lately she is worried about the plans to open a big fiber factory nearby.
00:58The water that will arrive here will be contaminated.
01:01It will be discharged into the river and flow into the sea.
01:04If they open a factory then that's our end.
01:06Really our end.
01:07And we need to find other jobs.
01:09The estuary of Barosa is one of Spain's most economically active bay areas.
01:15Thousands work in the fishery business and supply fresh produce to markets all over the
01:20country.
01:22The fiber factory proposed by Portuguese company Aldri is considered a threat to many and could
01:28be built between Melilla and Palacere, inland.
01:32Signs of protest are omnipresent.
01:34Tens of thousands sign petitions against the factory.
01:38At peak times it could use up to 46 million liters of water from the region's Ulla river
01:43every day.
01:45More than half would go back into the river, recycled and treated.
01:50It's treated water.
01:52That does not mean that it is water in good condition.
01:55This water will somehow alter the characteristics of the river and it will directly affect and
01:59economically impact the activity that is linked to the river and the Barosa estuary.
02:05We're talking about an ecological impact that I believe has not yet been fully calculated
02:11because we are talking about a climate emergency scenario that will require brave and decisive
02:16actions to counteract what is happening to us.
02:20Aldri's project is a direct attack on local entrepreneurs and the environment, says biologist
02:26Ana Corredoira.
02:28She runs a small family farm with 100 cows and produces milk, all organic and certified.
02:35She also fears the factory's emissions could cause acid rain and spoil the meadow where
02:41her cows graze.
02:44Any contamination puts her ecolabel at risk.
02:50Aldri's Pedro Baptista insists that doubts about contamination are unreasonable as the
02:55factory will use new technologies to keep pollution to a minimum.
03:00Licensing and EU funds have yet to be confirmed, though.
03:04The locally governing Conservative Party supports the factory, saying it would create 500 direct
03:10jobs, producing biodegradable lyosil.
03:14Baptista says the water footprint of the production plant would be restricted.
03:19We have a treatment plant.
03:21One of our plants has a technology that is new to this industry.
03:25It allows us to have such quality that it is possible to recirculate a part of the water
03:31inside the plant to replace water collected from the reservoir.
03:41But locals are not convinced.
03:43Dozens of initiatives in Galicia have held events to discuss their options and how to
03:49stop the project.
03:51Also here at a meeting of a platform to protect the Arosa estuary.
03:56Time and again they have witnessed how industrial spills have contaminated their waters.
04:00They won't rely on promises yet again.
04:04The problem of the current pollution in the Arosa estuary partly comes from failures in
04:09the sanitation of urban wastewater treatment plants and partly from industrial pollution.
04:17It comes from the Ulla river, which is behind us, or from the Ilna river, or from the factories
04:23that are close to the estuary.
04:26And factories are often not controlled by the autonomous administration as they should
04:30be.
04:39That makes the Arosa estuary vulnerable.
04:42And shellfish collectors like Ana Maria Corres Mugan even more protective of what matters
04:47to herself and many others.
04:51This is my life since I was little and the life of my grandparents and parents and I
04:56wanted to continue and the people that work and care for it.
05:00The regional government wants to publish an environmental impact report for the fiber
05:04factory soon, a factory that few here can imagine coexisting with.