Nerva is one of the miners towns in the region of Río Tinto in Spain.
One of the biggest sky open copper mine in the world.
But, at only 800 meters of the houses of Nerva, there is one of the biggest dangerous waste dump in Europe.
The local nickname that describes it is the Toilet of Europe.
A mountain of hundreds of thousands of toxic tons that come each year from many European countries.
The story of the Nerva Dump is the story of an announced absurdity
of an unprecedented social, ecological and economic failure.
They sold us the idea that the dump will be something fantastic,
the magical solution to the unemployment we are now suffering.
The dump is at 800 meters away from here, the center of the town,
and only at 500 meters of the first houses.
We have here the Río Tinto, something unique in the world, a jewel.
We asked for a referendum
We thought that our town did not deserve something like this.
For 25 years, the people of Nerve have received a staggering number of toxic waste tons
Many people here affirm that they have lost their smell sense.
We are in the landscape of Zarandas
where the Dump is located.
This is a stream that comes directly from the dump facilities.
In these facilities we can see a big wall made of clay
It has a depth of 30 meters.
It is fully stuffed.
And now what we can notice is that the waste overflows
And because of that they have covered them with a geo textile layer.
In other words, what you see there is a mountain of waste.
There are between 8 and 10 million of toxic tons there.
And what we see right now is the toxic water that comes from the leaks of this facility.
These are leaks of polluted waters
A court ruling affirms that these leaks are not a crime
because the Río Tinto is already polluted.
The company argues that they are only obliged to treat
only a 2 per cent of the first waters that are in contact with the dump.
they can evacuate the resting waters with no treatment directly to the Río Tinto.
So what we are seeing here just right now
are polluted waters that goes directly to the Rio Tinto river.
This rivers flows into the city of Huelva.
So it means that these wastes are depositing into the sediments of Huelva City.
We are seeing the DSM facilities
We can see how the waste are coming here.
In this case, they were discharged from a ship that came from Montenegro and arrived yesterday.
These are dangerous waste, 5.300 tons only came yesterday.
Tomorrow or in two days it will arrive another 9.000 tons more.
We get closed to the discharge site, how they handle these dangerous waste.
These are toxic sands from Montenegro
You can see the trucks
We are at only 700 meters of the town of Nerva.
All the dust you can see flows in the direction of to Nerva Town and Río Tinto.
just to the right of the scene.
We can see here how they clean the trucks of these toxic waste.
They use jet water.
Water that is also carried by the wind.
Also, at the background, we can see that some waste is self burning.
Nobody cares for it. You can see clearly the smoke.
This is how this toxic dump works.
This is how they handle this safety deposit, and accordingly with the local Andalucía government and also the government of Spain
They are perfectly equipped to treat these tons of dangerous toxic waste,
In this case, toxic sands.
What is the utility of so many disappointments?
What is the utility of so many blows received?
So many humiliations?
So many suffered abandonments?
30 years later, we still are exposed to the nearby million of tons
of the worst most dangerous waste of the world.
before the helpless gaze of our elders increasingly defeated.
Without knowing how to explain to our children
so that a few can get rich
They destroyed our paradise.
If you ask for studies to research the adverse consequences for our health
they call you an alarmist.
We are even denied to have this right.
Nerva did not deserve such this punishment.
Nerva is probably the nearest population center to a classified facility of very dangerous toxic waste
In the whole world.
Spanish courts have dismissed all complaints from citizen associations.
There is no law in Spain that can protect them.
For 25 years there has been no interest in conducting an epidemiological study in Nerva.
Political power has been turning a deaf ear to the concerns of its inhabitants for a quarter of a century.
Is this doing the right thing?