Demothanasia is the process by which political actions or omissions lead to the disappearance of a territory's population. Death by depopulation is slow and silent. It is merciless with the territory, nature and heritage. The situation is no less dramatic for the people who live or, rather, resist in rural areas. Those who live in the most absolute solitude in a silent, silenced and misnamed empty Spain. In reality, it is not yet empty.
Europe is the most ageing continent in the world. One of the regions most affected by ageing according to Eurostat is Galicia. There is a high percentage of elderly people with a lack of residential autonomy or with a certain degree of dependency who are reluctant to leave the land where they have lived all their lives. They live alone where care and assistance are conspicuous by their absence. Extremely worrying social contexts in the face of insufficient resources on the part of the administration and the passivity, full of implicit violence, of the political actors involved. A large part of the ageing population is abandoned in these areas with a lack of care and very limited social and health care coverage.
These are traditionally smallholding territories due to the sinuous orography that makes intensive production impossible. The current voracious market of macro-production and over-production, the lack of quality telecommunications and connections means that the demographic pyramid in most of the territories is inverted. There are population centres where the pyramid does not even have a base due to the low birth rate and the massive rural exodus.
The depopulation of rural areas is one of the causes of numerous environmental problems such as the increase in the voracity of forest fires or the increase in soil erosion.
If there are no radical changes in this respect: the death of the last rural inhabitants will bring with it the death of a social model and then it will be an empty Spain.
SPAIN Oural Lugo Monday 23 May 2022 br br Olga is 91 years old and despite her age she walks several kilometres around her village every day Her son who used to live in the city has had to return to the village where only they are left to look after her
House abandoned after the death of the elderly person who lived there Inside everything was left as she left it br br SPAIN Gunt n Lugo 18 May 2022
Luis lives alone in a house with no windows The situation in which he lives evokes moments from the past He says that he doesn t change the windows or fix the house because when he dies nobody will live there and the few family he has emigrated long ago br br SPAIN Terra Ch Lugo 26 April 2022
Domingo picks potatoes to make food Domingo is 88 years old and lives alone in an isolated village in A Fonsagrada br br SPAIN Fonsagrada Lugo Tuesday 07 February 2022
Herminia takes care of Victorina 93 years old Pepe s mother Pepe meanwhile checks his pills as he suffered a stroke a few months ago and is unable to move on his own Meanwhile Maria Herminia s sister helps him with the cooking Herminia also takes care of the vegetable garden She is still waiting for approval from the social affairs department to be able to apply for help but she has been in this situation for months now br br SPAIN O Courel Lugo 01 October 2023
Domingo lives alone in a village in A Fonsagrada He lights the wood-burning cooker to keep warm on a cold harsh winter s night br br SPAIN A Fonsagrada Lugo 15 February 2023
Mari Carmen carries fodder for the cows There are only three inhabited houses left in this village In one lives a couple of old people in another a ninety-three year old woman and her son And in the last house of the village live Mar a Jos 36 years old and Mari Carmen 61 years old Three years ago her husband died and since then mother and daughter have been living alone Mar a Jos is unemployed and her mother has been receiving a pension since the death of her husband three years ago They live in a kitchen with a lareira and quite poor living conditions They have four cows three of them inside the house next to the lareira The situation is complicated br br SPAIN Ortigueira Lugo 3 February 2023
Forest fire in O Courel Lugo A fire in which more than 11 000 ha burned for fifteen days in a row br br The depopulation of rural areas is one of the causes of many environmental problems such as the increasing voracity of forest fires Land is no longer used for grazing or cultivation and is occupied by intensive plantations of highly pyrophilous exotic species br br SPAIN O Courel Lugo 17 July 2023
Two young men approach the sixth generation mega-fire from a distance br br The depopulation of rural areas is one of the causes of many environmental problems such as the increasing voracity of forest fires Land is no longer used for grazing or cultivation and is occupied by intensive plantations of highly pyrophilous exotic species br br SPAIN O Courel Lugo 17 July 2023
A firefighter works in the extinguishing operation They are trying to extinguish the fire in an autochthonous forest of great environmental value br br The depopulation of rural areas is one of the causes of many environmental problems such as the increasing voracity of forest fires Land is no longer used for grazing or cultivation and is occupied by intensive plantations of highly pyrophilous exotic species br br SPAIN O Courel Lugo 17 July 2023
A bird killed in the forest fire Small animals and insects die in the flames of forest fires In this one in O Courel many valuable fauna and flora have died br br The depopulation of rural areas is one of the causes of many environmental problems such as the increasing voracity of forest fires Land is no longer used for grazing or cultivation and is occupied by intensive plantations of highly pyrophilous exotic species br br SPAIN O Courel Lugo 17 July 2023
Burnt pine forest Small animals and insects die in the flames of forest fires In this one in O Courel many valuable fauna and flora have died br br The depopulation of rural areas is one of the causes of many environmental problems such as the increasing voracity of forest fires Land is no longer used for grazing or cultivation and is occupied by intensive plantations of highly pyrophilous exotic species br br SPAIN O Courel Lugo 17 July 2023
