Conselo de Lobios, Feb. 13 (BNA): The ghost village that has emerged with an almost drought-damaged dam on the Spain-Portugal border is attracting throngs of tourists with its terrifying gray ruins.
With the reservoir at 15% of its capacity, details of frozen life are once again revealed in 1992, when the village of Aceredo in Spain’s northwestern Galicia region was flooded to create the Alto Lindoso Reservoir.
“It’s like I’m watching a movie. I feel sad,” said retired Maximino Perez Romero, 65, from A Coruña. “I feel like that’s what’s going to happen over the years because of drought and all that, with climate change.”
Walking the muddy ground cracked by drought in some areas, visitors found partially collapsed roofs, bricks and wood debris that formed doors or beams, and even a water fountain still gushing out of a rusty pipe.
Chests of empty beer bottles were stacked next to what used to be a café, and an old, semi-destroyed car bumped into a stone wall. Drone footage showed abandoned buildings.
María del Carmen Yáñez, mayor of the Grand Council of Lopeos, to which Asseredo belongs, blamed the situation on the lack of rain in recent months, particularly in January, but also on what she called “aggressive exploitation” by the Portuguese Electricity Corporation. EDP, which manages the tank.
On February 1, the Portuguese government ordered six dams, including the Alto Lindoso, to virtually stop using water for electricity production and irrigation, due to a worsening drought, according to Reuters.
In a call with Reuters, the EDP said the lower reservoir levels were due to drought, but that it was managing water resources “efficiently” and that those resources were above minimum requirements, including Alto Lindoso.
Questions about the sustainability of reservoirs are not new. Last year, several Spanish villages complained about how their power facilities were being used after a rapid withdrawal from a lake by Iberdrola in western Spain. The company said it was following the rules.
Data from the Ministry of the Environment shows that Spain’s reservoirs are at 44% of their capacity, well below the average of about 61% over the past decade, but still higher than the levels recorded in the 2018 drought. A source in the ministry said that drought indicators showed the possibility of worsening in the coming weeks, but it has not yet discovered a general problem across the country.
Jose Alvarez, a former construction worker from Lubius, felt a mixture of nostalgia and destiny reminiscent of his days working in Aceredo.
“It’s horrific, but it is what it is,” he said. “This is life. Some die, some live.”
HF