The Tintillo River in Andalusia, Spain is red in colour due to intense mining activity. It’s waters are highly acidic as a result of pollution from heavy metals such as iron, copper and sulphur dioxide emissions.
The Tintillo River in Andalusia, Spain is red in colour due to the intense mining activity in the region. It’s waters are highly acidic as a result of pollution from heavy metals such as iron and copper as well as sulphur dioxide emissions.
The Tintillo river is an example of how brutal a natural landscape can be destroyed and broken by the environmental impact of intensive metal mining. During the 19th and 20th centuries metals were extracted from open pit mines on a massive scale. Huge piles of waste were left to fester, allowing acidic water, toxic metals and sulphates to seep through the land and penetrate into water springs and rivers.
It is a bizarre landscape – grotesque but in a perverse way also very beautiful. But do not let this “beauty“ deceive us. The poisoned Tintillo river should serve as a stark warning. It demonstrates what happens to our natural environment if we do not take proper action to protect it . . .