The river that runs through Granada, Río Geníl, burst its banks, cutting access the nearby town of Valderrubio and swamping farmland.
The only two roads leading out of Valderrubio; one to Láchar and the other to Fuente Vaqueros were completely submerged in places.
But in Huétor Tájar things were worse…
The Mayor of Huétor Tájar was not a happy bunny on Sunday morning with the river level close to swamping the bridge and cattle practicing backstroke out on the farms. And why? Because the dam upstream had opened its floodgates.
“So much water was let out of the Cubillas Reservoir that the damage to farmlands has been bestial,” he complained. The main crop in the area is asparagus, which was ruined.
“We are demanding answers from the CHG (Waterboard), they did not coordinate the discharge properly nor did they issue a warning that they were going release so much water,” he accused.
He considers that he could have carried out the discharge operation a few days earlier as it was well known that there were heavy rains on the way. “But no, they just had to release it when the river was already running full,” he fumed.
According to the mayor, the water release caused much more damage than the rain itself resulting in widespread damage.
And the Mayor of Valderrubio, Paqui Blanco, won’t be sending any Christmas cards to the CHG, either. “We’re completely cut off on both sides,” adding, “I’m completely fed up of the rain and that nobody warned us that they were opening the floodgates like that instead of doing it little by little.”
Editorial comment: While you can only agree that the municipalities down river from the dam should have been warned and that the impending heavy rains over Friday and Saturday were no secret – provision could have been made – things would have been a lot worse had they not opened the floodgates, that is for sure.
(News: Huétor Tájar, Poniente de Granada, Andalucia)