The Cantabrian municipality of Vega de Liébana buried Gonzalo Gómez on the second day of September. With mourning, the last protagonist of the feat of the “Six Dobarganes” disappears at the age of 92, a group of neighbors who, in the 80s, tired of the underdevelopment in which they lived, decided to build a reservoir in their town, which they paid for and built themselves, so as not to starve and to give water to their cows.
Today, the La Tejera reservoir, with a capacity of 70,000 cubic metres, is used only by the Civil Protection helicopter to collect water when it needs to put out fires. In Dobarganes there are only 16 permanent inhabitants and a few others registered who only visit occasionally. Only two are cattle breeders and, between them, they have no more than fifty cows.
However, four decades ago, there were about a hundred inhabitants, at least three children in each house and 230 head of livestock, including cows and sheep, which they could neither feed nor water, because the drought had exhausted the grass. Then a few neighbors, who knew no other way of life than to plant the land and raise their livestock, fought the first battle against depopulation and revived for a time the pulse and hope in the city.
Life is not easy at almost 1,000 meters above sea level in this Lebanese geography in the shadow of the Picos de Europa. Even less than forty years ago, many basic needs were not met. Winter lasted five months and heavy snowfalls isolated the town for weeks. In Dobarganes, it snows a lot but rains very little. The meltwater flowed down the mountain and was lost from the Janus peak and when summer came, the neighbors, the animals and the land itself were thirsty. The town’s cows could produce 300 liters of milk a day, but when the heat came, the dry grass and the lack of rain significantly reduced milking in all the stables.
The difficulties of a hostile territory went further. If a neighbor fell ill, he had to be carried “un cuchus” – on the shoulders – or on a stretcher because there was no road, only a “pindio” – steep – and winding path of stones and mud. Thus, no cars had been seen in the city, which also had no paved streets or lighting. Women who began giving birth had to fend for themselves.
Water to survive
Dobarganes has always been inhabited by eight families. Two of them had already emigrated a long time ago to escape poverty. In 1980, the six remaining countries reached a historic agreement. The “heads of families” decided to build a reservoir: they needed water to combat the drought, to be able to plant more alfalfa to feed more animals that, in turn, would give more milk. The goal was to go from 300 to 1,000 liters per day. These are the names of the protagonists of this decision: Gumensindo Dobarganes, Miguel Alonso, Manuel Gutiérrez, Marino Torre, Juan Matías Gómez Cabezas and Gonzalo Gómez, recently deceased. “The Dobarganes Six”, as they have been called since then.
The National Institute for Agrarian Reform and Development, known as IRYDA, integrated into the current public body Natural Parks, was carrying out work in the Liébana area. Those of Dobarganes asked for help from engineers on the possibility of building a reservoir at an altitude of 1,500 meters to irrigate more than 300 hectares. They did not find this scandalous and decided to lend a hand by providing technical and financial support.
Geological studies advised to forget about concrete, due to the characteristics of the terrain, and finally 15,000 tons of compacted clay were used for a dam 70 meters high and 40 meters wide. It cost its promoters 3 million pesetas, plus official aid and subsidies. The “Dobarganes Six” contributed financially, even if their savings were quite modest.
The dam works were not the only ones undertaken. So that the excavators could climb, the neighbors began to open a road that would connect them to the world. A road of two and a half kilometers to the National 621 that then completed and improved the public works. They also decided to repair the city. These six families worked together: paving the streets that were a quagmire, promoting electrification, the sewage network, installing the telephone and building several watering holes for the livestock.
The current regionalist mayor of Vega de Liébana is the son of Miguel Alonso, one of the “Six Dobarganes”. I was 14 when the reservoir was built. He was one of those children for whom these families fought for the future, so that he would not have to emigrate. “We would come home from school and on weekends we would work. Either we would build a wall, compact the earth in the swamp, or we would give way to the truck and the excavators. All of us, neighbors, worked on the city’s construction sites,” recalls Goyo Alonso. Dobarganes had about a hundred inhabitants at the time. Today, the mayor recites the names of each one out loud and says that there are only 16 left and a few others who only spend a few seasons.
We came home from school and on weekends we worked. We would either build a wall, compact the earth in the swamp, or give way to the truck and excavators. All the neighbors worked on the city’s construction sites.
Goyo Alonso
— Mayor of Vega de Liébana
The inauguration of the reservoir was celebrated on a Sunday in November 1981 with a party. The press of the time talks about it. The dam gate was closed with great solemnity and emotion. Before the meal, the town priest celebrated a country mass and then they organized an open-air meal. The six families of the town invited the IRYDA engineers who had helped them so much. It was a historic event that the town still remembers with pride. An example of collaboration, consensus and working together.
The effort was worth it. A large main pipeline brought water from the dam down to the town and an irrigation system irrigated an area of 300 hectares. For the first time, the fishmonger’s horn sounded in the centre of Dobarganes and the inhabitants were able to go out to the square to buy trout and sardines. Several harvests of alfalfa were harvested which fed more and more heads of cattle. This feat was rewarded in 1982 with the prize of the International Technical Fair of Agricultural Machinery of Zaragoza: Dobarganes won the national competition for the improvement of community development.
More than four decades later, it seems that the reservoir has failed to save the fate of the city, which today hesitates between good intentions and insignificant public initiatives to try to stop the exodus. Today, it is a place of great beauty, perfectly integrated into the environment to the point that it resembles a lake, close to Pico Jano from where there are spectacular views of the Picos de Europa.
The livestock and orchards have disappeared and, like other orphaned towns, it has become a tourist showcase. The inhabitants die without generational replacements. The last to die in early September was Gonzalo Gómez, the last survivor of the “Dobarganes Six”. “Now you don’t see any chimneys smoking, there are almost no people left,” laments the mayor. But 42 years ago, at least in Dobarganes, the thirst dissipated.
