Their lagoons languishing, precious Spanish wetlands go dry
For decades, the waters of the Guadalquivir River and the Río Guadalquivir have been filled by runoff from their watersheds, which include farmland and large swaths of forest. Yet, despite the waters of the rivers drying up more than ever, people, wildlife, and tourism are moving in.
Rafael Benítez/AFP/Getty Images
Today, the waters of the Guadalquivir River and the Río Guadalquivir are full of mud, silt, and sediment brought down by rain and eroded from nearby forests and farmland. To add to the problems, a large dam is impounding the river’s waters, leaving the two rivers hemmed in by a narrow strip of land.
“The Guadalquivir River has a different fate from the Río Guadalquivir,” José Castro, head of the Rio de la Plata Conservation Society, told me. “This is because a very large dam is filling up the Río Guadalquivir with water from the Guadalquivir River. Now that the dam’s operation is close to completion, we can see why the Río Guadalquivir has not been in good shape for a long time. This is a tragedy.”
In the 1990s, with the dam’s construction complete, the Rio de la Plata Conservation Society began using a computer program to calculate how much water the Río Guadalquivir was likely to lose, using information from previous years and looking at changes in rainfall. If the dam were to operate continuously, the Río Guadalquivir’s water levels would go down by more than two-thirds.
The dam is now going under construction again so that the waters of the Guadalquivir could be restored to their previous state, and the area around the river filled with fresh water.
Today, the waters of the Guadalquivir River and the Río Guadalquivir have been full of mud, silt, and sediment brought down by rainfall and eroded from nearby forests and farmland. To add to the problems, a large dam is impounding the river’s waters, leaving the two rivers hemmed in by a narrow strip