All new arrivals to the province to the south of Granada, eventually discover the Embalse de Bermejales, but what we see today is a ghost of what it once was.

We’re not referring to the embalse (reservoir) itself, but rather the hamlet there. Yes, it is true that the level of water has been down to a minimum over many summers (the tower that should be sticking out of the water is invariably standing on dry land).

But its the tiny village that for all the world looks like a Spanish army base, with administrative buildings and even an arsenal bunker and pill boxes.

If you explore the village behind the bar/restaurant called The Crossroads you would have come across 2-storey farmhouses in various states of disrepair but since the area was ‘discovered’ by foreigners, mainly Brits, some have been bought and done up.

The busiest area near the shores of the reservoir is the campsite with the small prefab colony of foreign residents on the other side of the road but for all the life that foreigners have breathed into this little oasis, there are no amenities. The only shop is part of the campsite bar-cum-reception because the other tiny shop across the road from the Bar El Cruce has long since disappeared.

So what is happening and why is the original urban area (as oppose the camping facilities) literally dying? The answer is that Arenas del Rey Town Hall (under which the hamlet comes) and the Guadalquivir Water Authorities (Confederación hydrológica de Guadalquivir) are both apparently ignoring the plights, palming the blame off between them.

Before, the CHG had 15 employees working between maintenance and administrative workers there and the administrative buildings were maintained by them. But they have been left to go to ruin and the solution, as far as the CHG is concerned, is to demolish them, rather than renovate them.

The same goes for the gardens and trees (pines) with some of the latter dying and the former abandoned. Even the model of the embalse that many passersby fail to recognise as such, has fallen into disrepair.

The area has had some bad luck, too. The facilities were used to bring children with mental disabilities to do summer camps there but one year there was a fire and some of them perished. Across the way there was a fully functioning pool with camping huts for scouts and city-kid summer camps but it has all deteriorated and the empty pool became little more than a rubbish tip. Perhaps it has since been demolished, even.

This place in the 70s and early 80s was a jewel in the crown of the province with families from the city of Granada coming to spend their summer holidays there… but not anymore, apart from the privite camping facilities.

To do something about this, the locals have set up an association to work together to get things moving again. They are calling upon the Town Hall and the CHG to collaborate in the maintenance and recuperation of the hamlet. They managed to have a meeting with the CHG recently, who reacted positively.

As for the Town Hall, the new Mayor claims that they spent more last year on the hamlet than has been spent on it in the last decade. They say that they spent 20,000 euros doing up the old school making it into an information centre for the reservoir.

They also intend to resurrect the old cook house and dining room by putting it out to tender with the hope of somebody taking it on and turning it into a functioning bar. These installations also have six tourist apartments.

Finally, the CHG has promised to cut back excessive vegetation come October… they didn’t mention which October, mind…

Editorial note: we use the term, ‘hamlet’ but there is an abandoned church/chapel, which makes it technically a village.

(News: Embalse de Bermejales, Arenas de Rey, Poniente, Granada, Andalucia)

Tags: Bermejales, Abandoned, Deterioration, Dam, Administrative Buildings, Dead & Dying Trees, CHG, Town Hall