It was inaugurated in 2015, cost 57 million euros and has a capacity for 30 hm3 of water, but the Siles dam in Jaén has not been used for a decade because no one has made the necessary pipes to irrigate the Sierra del Segura. It is not an isolated case.
An example. The Rules dam was inaugurated a little earlier: in 2004. Today, while the province of Granada is at 29% of its capacity, the Vélez de Benaudalla reservoir is close to 70%. The secret is the same: going for 20 years without pipes that allow us to use the water. These flagrant cases, but there are many more: Alcolea in Huelva, Mularroya in Zaragoza, Castrovido in Burgos…
Is there anything more Spanish than making reservoirs and taking years—or decades—to build the pipelines that make them useful?
The house on the roof. In a country like Spain, every useless cubic hectometer is not only de facto lost water, it is also tremendous ecological damage inflicted on riverbeds for no reason. And, if that were not enough, it is economic nonsense. It makes no sense to mobilize all the resources necessary to launch a reservoir and then leave it forgotten.
Above all, because (whether we like it or not) we live in an agricultural giant that needs water security that we cannot guarantee. The opportunity cost of delaying the pipelines necessary to launch these reservoirs impacts the economic and employment development of entire regions.
A Spanish problem? To tell the truth, we cannot say that it is a purely Spanish problem either. Portugal, France or Italy have had similar problems. What happens in Spain is that there is an enormous fragmentation of powers that means that, when any problem appears, everything comes to a standstill.
In our case, the central State designs and finances the main dams and key sections. However, it is the autonomous communities, the hydrographic confederations or the municipalities that must execute the secondary networks. And in determining what is the main or secondary tranche (and who should pay the bill) most problems arise.
But not the only ones. And as processes drag on, licenses expire, works are not awarded, litigation drags on, environmental requirements become tougher and solving the problem becomes impossible.
In the end, the dams are what is striking (what is politically profitable). The “last mile” (that whole set of pumping stations, pipelines and treatment plants) is much less striking, as crucial as it is. When problems become entrenched, there are no good solutions and administrations prefer to put the issue aside rather than make decisions.
The country of a thousand preys. Because yes, it is true: Spain has many dams, but dozens of them remain vats of water of no use. And as much as the causes are clear, it is still striking that not even water crises like those of recent years manage to solve this.
Imagen | Red Zeppelin
In WorldOfSoftware | “In the next ten years, Spain and Latin America are going to suffer (a lot) with water,” Robert Glennon (University of Arizona)
