If you look at them on site They are nothing more than small walls that often barely protrude above the surface. The water even passes them effortlessly when there is a certain flow. They hold virtually no volume and stop no flooding. The majority are old weirs that are no longer used, a gauging station or a small diversion to bring water to a farm.
This is essentially what is removed from the rivers of the Valencian Community and the rest of the hydrographic districts of Spain. And a look at the images explains the dimension of what is suppressed.
The truth is that what is removed from the European, Spanish and Valencian rivers constitutes ancient obstacles and barriers on the course of the river, which have become old and obsolete. “Normally low height, built to allow the diversion or elevation of surface water for different human uses”, as described by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
However, Vox continues to insist on its hydraulic deception: the far-right spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, repeated this Wednesday in the name of DANA that “what kills is having collapsed the dams out of pure climate fanaticism.” Its boss, Santiago Abascal, had already declared on October 30 that part of the responsibility for these deaths lay with the European Commission for a “criminal law on the destruction of dams”.
The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Luis Torres, reminded Congress that “no dam has been destroyed in the Valencian Community for 24 years”.
The Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar itself explained in May 2023 regarding the elimination of thresholds that “these old disused infrastructures are not useful for storing water, because they are generally blocked and only maintain a small water table. ‘stagnant water upstream’.
The Vox hoax arose to accuse the government of being responsible for the water shortage during the drought because it had removed reservoirs that stored water. A hydromyth which ignores that if there is no precipitation, any reservoir is incapable of storing liquid, since it does not rain in the reservoir. “If a threshold is disused, it should be demolished to avoid problems and regain the longitudinal continuity of the river and its character as an ecological corridor,” added the CHJ a year and a half ago.
In Spain, there are tens of thousands of these already forgotten infrastructures throughout the territory. More than 19,000 have been recorded, but the same ministry admits that “in reality, there are many more who appear neither in the inventories nor in the official registers.”
These works are undertaken in all demarcations and repeat the same pattern: dams and walls which accumulate in the rivers and courses whether in the basin of the Miño, the Sil, the Ebro, the Tagus, the Duero, Guadalquivir or Cantabrian. river system.
