More dams removed in Spain!

Spanish basin authorities are making big efforts every day to remove obsolete obstacles. Project initiatives usually succeed as nobody is willing to pay the maintenance and repair costs of old and abandoned dams.

Guilleries-Savassona Nature Reserve is one of the 12 nature reserves administered by the Barcelona Provincial Government. In this reserve, one fishway construction and one dam removal was completed last year to improve river connectivity for fish fauna. To read more about it click here

Guilleries-Savassona weir removal. Photo: Catalonian Water Agency.

The Jucar Basin Authority (CHJ), in the east of Spain, has demolished 10 obstacles over the past two years in the basin. Socially this was a challenge as the region is part of the dry Iberian Peninsula and is very important for agriculture. Demolition of dams is not the first, logical option that comes to people’s minds.

Two of the removals done during 2016 by CHJ “Chillarón” and “Ojos de Moya” Rivers (Jucar Basin) are shown below. The last dam removal was done in November 2017in the Júcar River (Albacete Province), which is the main river of the basin (Click here for more information).