reservoir

In 1965 the Franco regime wanted to build a huge reservoir in Extremadura: instead it had 50 deaths and a cover-up

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On October 22, 1965, a disastrous whistle began with a dismal sound in the working-class town of Saltos de Torrejón el Rubio, province of Cáceres, that at least some of the employees who at that time were working on the construction of the dams on the Tajo and Tiétar rivers have been fearing for days. About the nine twenty in the morning, while the children were hurrying through their breakfasts to leave for school, the hum of a siren began to resonate. The warning siren. The same one that screamed to warn of accidents. The problem is that that autumn morning Accident could very well have been written like that, with a capital letter. The discreet, humble and remote working-class town of the municipality of Torrejón el Rubioin the heart of Monfragüe, has just served as the setting that many still consider today as the worst work accident occurred in the history of Spain. A monumental work That is what the Franco dictatorship intended in the mid-1960s with the works in the channels of the Tiétar and Tagus rivers, to carry out an enormous reference work in Europe. It was the stage of developmentalism and only a few years earlier, in 1959, the regime had had to deal with the Ribadelago catastrophecaused by the failure of a dam that took away 144 residents of the Zamoran town. In Extremadura he wanted to make amends. In Xataka After the Civil War, Franco wanted to colonize emptied Spain. So 300 new towns were invented The project developed in Cáceres was certainly important. Neither more nor less than building two dams between the channels of the Tagus and Tiétar rivers, along with a huge canal between both infrastructures to transfer water and generate electricity. By October 1965 the works were already more than advanced. It is estimated that about 4,000 workers between 1959 and 1966, many of them residents of surrounding towns who found in the project a way to avoid emigration. In 2020, the anthropologist Manuel Trinidad he explained to elDiario.es that works of this type came to form a kind of guild, “the pantaneros”, who moved from one side of Extremadura to the other. The Negratín reservoir, in Granada. (Unsplash) To accommodate the workers who shaped the infrastructure for seven years, two towns were built, “the one upstairs”, designed for company officials and managers; and another for the laborers. Proof that it was an authentic town is that they had services such as a school, commissary, dining room, chapel, church and even a tavern, tobacco shop and a Civil Guard barracks. The Extremadura Newspaper precise that the person in charge of the construction was Agromán and the work was carried out for Hidroeléctrica Española, today Iberdrola. What happened? A combination of factors. One in which the meteorology is combined and everything indicates that negligence of those responsible for the project. The previous weeks had been especially rainy, which little by little caused the water level of the swamp to rise until it was barely 83 centimeters of the maximum authorized level. That the level and pressure rose did not mean, however, that the workers stopped working on the canal and the river bed. The inhabitants of the town were in fact preparing to witness quite a spectacle, like I would recognize years later one of the victims The Country: “Seeing the waterfalls of foaming water from the spillways for the first time.” It wasn’t like that. And what was expected to be a spectacle ended up being revealed as a branch. The pressure of the dammed liquid was such that a cofferdam ended up bursting. 14 tons that protected the pumping tunnel. Result: a violent torrent of water that ended up flooding the conduit, the underground plant and galleries. With everything that this implies. And the workers?  That is one of the keys to the tragedy. In the flooded canal between the Tagus and Tiétar dams, crews of workers continued to work and could do little to avoid the violence of the water. Not only that. The torrent expanded with such force that it ended up taking with it other employees who were toiling in the dry river bed. It is estimated that at that point alone there were some 400 people when the tragedy occurred. The force and speed of the water made it difficult for even them to get to safety. The event was so dramatic that it forced the town to be evacuated and rescue efforts to begin. “My father and many other workers were seeing him coming. He dreamed at night. He repeated many times: something is going to happen and it is going to be very bad. They want to try working with us,” remembers Flori Almendral in statements collected by The Jump. She is not the only one who retains memories of that episode. Paqui Martos tells for the same report how they managed to throw a rope to save a young man who was floating in a well. “It held on tightly with such bad luck that when it came out it broke.” His fate, he continues, was known shortly after: “15 days later we found him with the rope in his hands.” With the memory of what happened in Ribadelago still fresh, the Franco regime decided to silence the Monfragüe accident. The incident occurred on October 22 and on November 1 the NO-DO dedicated a brief space of 37 seconds to the news, remember The Daily Leapbehind a chronicle about a ball of the Barcelona bourgeoisie. Newspapers of the time, such as Above, Town either Alreadythey also passed on tiptoe about the tragedy. They officially recognized 54 fatalitiesbut there are those who raise the total number of deaths and missing people in the 1965 accident well above that figure, to more than a hundred. Specifying the exact amount is complicated. The workers remember that they moved 75 coffins and they were not enough to accommodate all the corpses. Some they even hold … Read more

Storing CO2 is now a business and the first submarine reservoir is in Europe

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Europe already has its first large underwater warehouse of carbon dioxide. The Northern Lights projectdriven by equinor, Shell and totalenergies, just Inject the first tons of CO2 in a reservoir located 2,600 meters under the seabed on the western coast of Norway. Why is it important. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is emerging as one of the few ways to reduce emissions in difficult sectors of decarbonizesuch as cement production, steel or energy from waste. Until now, these technologies looked as experimental or too expensive. With this project, Europe thus opens a commercial system for CO2 transport and storage. As assured Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, “This demonstrates the viability of carbon storage as a scalable industry.” In detail. The stored CO2 comes from the cement of Heidelberg Materials in Brevik, south of Norway. After being liquefied and transported by boat until Øgarden, it was pumped by a 100 -kilometer pipeline to the submarine reservoir known as Aurora. The first phase of the project will inject 1.5 million tons per year of CO2, although this same year Northern Lights gave green light to an expansion of the project thanks to a commercial agreement with Stockholm Exergi. A larger bet. The investment of 7.5 billion Norwegian crowns (about 740 million euros) will be the trigger for that expansion with a second phase that The capacity will increase More than 5 million tons per year from 2028. In addition to Stockholm Exergi, among the first clients is also the Danish Ørsted, the Dutch Yara and the Heidelberg Materials itself. “With the beginning of Northern Lights operations, we enter a new phase for the carbon storage industry in Europe,” affirmed Arnaud Le Foll, Vice President of Carbon Neutrality Business in Totalenergies. And now what. Although it is of course a true turning point, the doubt remains in the air about whether the model will scaling enough to contribute in a real way to the climatic objectives that are proposed by Europe. Norway opens the way, but the key will be especially in how much business, and how much reduction of emissions, these reservoirs can generate in the coming years. Cover image | Equinor In Xataka | The Era of Petroestados is ending: China is the first “electrostate” of the world and not because of its climatic moral

The government emptied a reservoir in Cáceres to eradicate an invading fish. The remedy was worse than the disease

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Just eight months ago, Alcollarín dressed in gala. This small town of Cáceres, with just over 300 neighbors, was presented at the International Tourism Fair of Madrid as a privileged corner to observe birds, throw the cane or walk next to its reservoir, blue mirror in the middle of the pasture. Today, the postcard has completely changed. Where the water was shone before, now a lodazal splashed from dead fish is extended. The air, loaded with a sour smell, reaches the streets of the town. The neighbors speak of “ecological disaster” and look unbelieved towards the dam, while from the Guadiana Hydrographic Confederation defend that the operation was “of vital importance” to protect the future of the basin. The operation that changed everything. The Ministry for Ecological Transition, through the CHG, He started a plan To eradicate the invasive species Pseudorasbora Parva —An known as Chinese fish or Gobio de Boca Túpe -, present at the reservoir and in the Alcollarín River since 2010. Included in the Spanish catalog of invading exotic species and in the European regulation of worrying species for the EU, its control is a legal obligation to prevent its propagation. The plan included months of bearsques with specialized ships and, as a final phase, a “controlled” emptying of the dam to facilitate the capture of specimens. As reported by the CHGthe reservoir was 100 % of its capacity – 50 cubic hectometers, equivalent to 50,000 million liters – before starting the operation. The problem, like They have denounced neighbors and associations to the newspaper Extremadurais that the emptying caused the downstream release of thousands of copies, expanding the species towards the Ruecas and Guadiana rivers. The enemy in the waters of Alcollarín. The Pseudorasbora Parva He arrived in Europe around 1960 and has expanded to more than 30 countries, mainly by introductions linked to aquaculture. In Spain, it was first detected in the Ebro basin in 2002 and, since then, it has colonized sections of Catalonia, Andalusia, Madrid and Extremadura. In the case of Alcollarín, the species was detected in 2010 and, According to the mitecoits density in the reservoir had reached levels that made its complete eradication technically. Even so, the CHG He defended that it was urgent Reduce its population to avoid dispersion towards new channels, especially before the connection planned with the Orellana Canal, and ensure that the reservoir could be used for irrigation and recreational activities “in accordance with current legislation.” Of the catastrophe control. The contract, awarded in June 2024 to the engineering company and technical designs SAU for 787,861.99 euros (without taxes), included several phases of analysis of the pisco fauna, installation of metal containment barriers to avoid leaks, extraction of native species and elimination of invasors, and the controlled emptying of the reservoir. However, According to neighbors and groups such as the Fund for the Defense of Natural and Cultural Heritage of Extremadura (Fondenex)the procedure did not come out as planned. The Captured downstreams overflowed in the critical and “hundreds of thousands” phases of invading specimens escaped towards the wheel and the Guadiana. The drastic drop of the water level, added to the high temperatures, also caused the death of numerous native species, including the barbo, cataloged as vulnerable. The shores were filled with decomposition fish, aquatic birds abandoned the area and the local economy lost, suddenly, a key resource for nature tourism. Crossing accusations. The CHG argues that the operation was planned and executed under the supervision of a “multidisciplinary team of biologists, ambientologists and highly qualified engineers”, As the newspaper has detailedand recognize only a “punctual mortality of Barbos.” He affirms that most native specimens were rescued during previous beings. On the other hand, Fondenex has described in the same medium the action of “ecological nonsense” and accuses the CHG of “manifest negligence” for emptying the reservoir in the middle of summer, without providing urgent uses of water, such as fire extinguishing, and without assessing the impact on protected birds in the Zepa Llanos de Zorita. The group has requested environmental reports and does not rule out file a complaint with the courts. In addition, the neighbors have denounced that “the only positive aspects that a reservoir” have been charged and question the use of “massive and non -selective” methods prohibited by the Nature Conservation Law. Forecasts Once the presence of Pseudorasbora Parvathe CHG plans to reintroduce native species with the collaboration of the Board of Extremadura and maintain barriers and controls in future unwins. However, environmental groups warn that the ecological and tourist recovery of the reservoir will take years, and that the invading fish is already present in sections of the wheels and the Guadiana where it had not arrived before. An open question. In Alcollarín, official versions and citizen perceptions diverge radically: for administration, it is a necessary technical operation; For many neighbors, of an “environmental catastrophe” that has multiplied the problem. Beyond the specific case, the episode raises a dilemma that transcends Extremadura: what environmental and social cost are we willing to assume to stop a biological invasion when total eradication is practically impossible? Image | Chgguadiana and B. Schoenmakers Xataka | Water restrictions return in the northwest. It is the logical conclusion of a trend that comes from afar

The Artikutza reservoir in Navarra has remained empty despite the rains. His destiny is another: the demolition

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The rains of recent months have caused many of the reservoirs of the Peninsula to go from practically dry due to drought to recover flows more typical of normality. That is not the case of the Artikutza reservoir, a Navarrese reservoir located near the border between the Foral Community and Gipuzkoa. The reason is that the Artikutza reservoir is a dead reservoir, and its prey, as we know it, has the days counted. Green light to demolition (partial). The San Sebastián City Council It is prepared For the partial demolition of the Artikutza dam as reported by local authorities. The infrastructure, in disuse for more than 20 years will be measured so that the so -called Enobieta regatta, whose flow retained the prey leads to the Añarbe River without having to cross the infrastructure pipes. The works are expected to begin in 2026. Wasn’t we in Navarra? According to He tells Iñigo GarcíaCouncilor for the Environment of the Donostiarra Consistory, to Efeverdethe history of the Artikutza reservoir begins in 1919, when the City Council bought some land next to the population of Artikutza, in the north of Navarra in order to build a reservoir that supplied water to the coastal municipality. The dam never was fully filled: in 1948, geological problems were detected that limited the filling capacity of the reservoir to approximately half of the planned volume. In spite of this, the reservoir was the main source of water supply of the Guipuzcoan capital between 1960 and 1976, when downstream entered into the service of the Añarbe reservoir, of a much higher volume to face the population growth of the city. A spoiled dam. In 1992 the reservoir stopped supplying water to the municipality of Donostia, but its final decline would begin ten years later, in 2002. This year, a failure in the electrical maneuver Reservoir coffin. Reservoir that would end emptying more than a decade laterbetween 2017 and 2019. A duct in the lower part of the dam allows the small regato to flow with hardly any restrictions, but the new project seeks to further facilitate the transit of the river and avoid risks derived from the accumulation of sediments. A partial demolition. We indicated at the beginning that the demolition of the dam would be partial and not total. The Donostiarra Consistory considered three demolition options: the total demolition, the partial and the possibility of maintaining the current channeling to maintain an open passage. Finally, the decision was favorable to the partial demolition, which implies the opening of the dam through a vertical cleft of seven meters wide below one of the old reliefs of the dam. This would allow recovering the natural flow of the river avoiding at the same time A cumbersome work in a protected natural environment and complex access. Protect fauna. Now the question fits, and all this for what? The possibility of leaving things as they were was on the table. However, it was considered that the opening of the dam was an ideal way of guaranteeing biological connectivity without the risk that the accumulation of sediments will hinder the passage of water and animals. There are several species whose conservation has been influenced when explaining the ecological impact of the project. The first is The Iberian Desman (Pyrenaicus Galemys)an animal that also receives the nickname of the “Spanish ornitorrinco”. This animal is one of the most threatened mammal species of our environment and has a small population in this hydrographic basin. The authorities also highlight the existence of “Bat populations of much biological interest” that inhabit the interior of the dam. In Xataka | “Thank you so much, reservoirs.net”: Spanish men are developing a peculiar obsession with swamps Image | Ksarasola / Eider Palmou

Global reservoir water data are incredibly good. The reality of many areas is very different.

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Few figures can move more to someone who has followed the day to day of drought in Spain than is: 43,144. Those are, on May 5, 2025, the HM3 in the country’s reservoirs. 76.99% of the total. In recent time, we have never seen anything the same. And yet the alarm signals. And I do not mean only the general reports. That also: the latest Copernicus report, the European land observation system, despite focusing on the situation of central Europe, Let it clear That the situation in Spain is terrible. It leaves no doubt: the vast majority of points in “alert” by drought of the European continent They are on the peninsula. But, as I say, the alerts not only come from obtuse community reports, they also come from the same hydrographic confederations that are prohibiting crops because, according to their calculations, the endowment of reservoirs is not enough. The Granada example. When the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) He announced The maximum endowments for irrigation for this year, “the worst omen were confirmed.” The accounts did not give, the regable areas of the province of Granada were going to continue with the greatest restrictions because their water reserves had not improved at the same level as in the rest of the basin. That is, the global figures and even the figures per Cuenca were not enough to know how the country was really: there are entire areas that, despite being part of water full of water, are not going to leave the drought behind. And what does this imply? Well, for example, farmers in La Vega de Granada who have sown winter crops will not be able to plant anything in summer. It is not a new measure, it was already implemented in 2023. The problem is that no one expected this and constitutes a blow to the rentier of a sector accustomed to using rotation to finance the following crops (as explained in ideal“The corn that is now paid expenses and income from winter crops”). That is, despite the water, many areas will have a bad time. Because no, it is not a problem that only affects Granada. A good part of southeast (regardless of the basin), the Balearic Islands or Some areas of the interior They will have water problems and will not be able to develop agricultural activities normally. To that we must add all the crops that go late Or they are Seeing how pests are primed with them. In the background, it is a reminder that the drought problems that have been accompanying us for 10 years cannot be diluted in two springs. As we have said many timesdroughts are managed with full swamps. It is now when you have to redouble efforts in infrastructure and management models. The restrictions may be necessary, but if we stay there … the most important step will be missing. Image | Kshithij Chandrashekar In Xataka | Spain has a huge problem with contaminated waters. These researchers believe that the solution is the poplars

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