The CC-PNC group of the Cabildo de Tenerife demands “an urgent solution” for the Arico dam in order to help supply quality water to the southern midlands. The nationalist councilor Blanca Pérez indicated through a statement that with the last rains of the Hermine storm, the El Río dam “was 60 centimeters from being filled, despite having the gates open.” “It is true that the situation is not usual, but months ago in plenary it was agreed to study the solutions and the PSOE has not yet provided them.”
The counselor proposes placing intakes to take that water to the channels that are below the dam and does not understand “how the gates are open, which cause the water to go to the sea and do not feed the aquifer, which is quite depleted, as everyone knows the world”. «We have to study the real yields of floods from the dam and how to channel that water when it rains; See the possibility of promoting water with renewable energies so that the mid-range areas receive quality water for agricultural use”, assured Blanca Pérez.
The El Río dam is one of the two great failures of Tenerife’s hydraulic engineering, along with Los Campitos, in Santa Cruz. This was stated by Javier Rodríguez, Councilor for Sustainable Development of the Cabildo de Tenerife. It was designed to take advantage of the water that flowed through the ravine of the same name that divides Arico and Granadilla, into which eleven basins flow. Located 600 meters above sea level, it has the capacity to store a million and a half cubic meters. It was built in the 1960s by the Canary Islands Economic Command. It was never in operation due to major filtration problems.
