Sustainable models of water exploitation: the combination of galleries and dams below watercourses.

Abstract

Combined systems of draining galleries and dams below the earth have been used in order to collect and exploit aquifers below watercourses and rivers in the arid and semi-arid environment of the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. These can be regarded as models of sustainable exploitation of water. In the bank of the Guadalentín river in the area near Lorca, the Fuente del Oro exploitation facility stood out among the systems of galleries combined with dams below watercourses to exploit aquifers. Some facilities are still in use in the Béjar, Ramonete, Vilerde and Nogalte watercourses (the latter including the Los-Cotes Cegarras y Caño-Contracaño facilities). All these are located in the south-west of the Region of Murcia. These are local systems that exploit existing resources. They are very valuable because of the high quality of the water obtained. They are affected by earthquakes and floods. There is a long history of conflicts about their ownership because of the scarcity of water resources in the Mediterranean.