The XIV Spanish Dam Conferences, organized by the Spanish National Committee on Large Dams (Spancold), have brought together professionals, administrations, companies, universities, and research centers in Granada since last Monday. The aim is to analyze the current and future challenges of water management and hydraulic infrastructure in Spain.
The event, which runs until this Thursday at the Granada Congress Palace, is hosted by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation and the Granada City Council. During the inaugural session, a spokesperson for the organization emphasized the importance of providing the necessary resources to ensure dam safety, so that Spain's hydraulic heritage continues to be a solution in climatic times marked by extremes.
“"Over the last few years, the Ministry has invested around 600 million euros in the maintenance and promotion of these structures, representing an increase in investment of just over 40% compared to the previous period."
The Secretary of State for the Environment thanked the opportunity to report on the management and economic resources invested in hydraulic infrastructure. He detailed that nearly 1,800 inspections and emergency plan analyses have been carried out, within the framework of the new dam safety regulation, which foresees an investment of approximately 500 million euros for adaptation in the next ten dams and another 26 million for checking non-state dams.
Meanwhile, the president of the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) highlighted the work of the hydrographic confederations, emphasizing the management of 50 reservoirs that supply 4 million people and 900,000 hectares of irrigated land in the Guadalquivir system. She stressed that reservoirs are crucial for mitigating droughts and floods, and that the CHG has ongoing works worth 46 million euros with FEDER funds, aiming to reach 125 million in the 2021-2027 operational program.
This Wednesday, the conferences focus on the role of dams and reservoirs in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the energy transition. The program includes sessions on climate change, floods and droughts, hydraulic energy storage, and multi-purpose reservoir management, among other relevant topics.
