The Prestige : We don't forget - part 2

...both in terms of resources and employment. Now they are more vulnerable than ever and their very structure and function are under threat.

We must use all the expertise and resources necessary in order to prevent such a huge-scale disaster from ever happening again. The Spanish government must understand the role that the marine environment plays in the natural biological balance and must give priority to the environmental, economic and social recovery of the affected area as a whole.

A fair measure of the Spanish government´s scarce interest is the amount of money invested in evaluating the catastrophe caused by the Prestige. The Ministry of Science and Technology has implemented research programmes which total, according to several sources close to the government, less than 10 million euros. The amount spent by the North American government in evaluating and monitoring the oil slick caused by the Exxon Valdez came close to 400 million dollars. Forty times the budget for the Prestige.

This would require the development of an environmental monitoring system for the affected ecosystems. The measures put forward so far by the government are partial and fragmentary and in many cases they completely overlook the natural areas that have been affected. This is true of the so-called ‘Plan Galicia', a combination of costly infrastructures (ports, roads and railways) which are totally unrelated to the recovery programmes needed by the Galician and Cantabrian coasts.