Apart from the irony of having such a title as "environmental
minister" we have to point out that this is pure protocol
as the dam is finished and there are already planning to fill
it up - according to Mr Sanz before the en
d of the year. He stated that the government has managed to sort
out all the legal problems so the filling-up can go ahead.
Three members of Solidari@s con Itoitz managed to get through
the heavy security that was mobilized for the event including
Guardia Civil and Navarre regional police. The three solidari@s
were naked and hanged three banners against the dam. When the
minister began his speech in an improvised marquee, the Solidari@s
started shouting slogans against the environmental impact of such
a project and the waste of money. Sure the gathering vultures
didn't like so much such an action in front of all the media.
The three were arrested and handed over the Guardia Civil. They
were released under "disorder" charges.
The minister answered the journalists' questions about the dam's
risks pointing out that everything had been sorted. For those
who are not familiar with this case we'll remind you that the
Itoitz dam had been found to be "high risk" by eminent
engineers Antonio Casas and Arturo Rebollo.
These experts together with the Cordinadora de Itoitz demonstrated
the possibilities one of the hills slipping where the damsç foundations
are laid. The consequences could be catastrophic, likely to repeat
a disaster like the one at Vaiont (Italy) in the 60's which killed
2000 people.
In report they warned that in the event of an accident, the overflow
would be between 50 and 750 times the current volume of the Irati
River. This would affect also the next river branch (Aragon),
and the main river (Ebro), causing the wipe-out of the nearest
urban settlement (Agoitz) but also affecting towns and cities
like Irunberri, Zangoza, Tutera, Zaragoza and Tortosa which are
very distant in the map.
He also mentions the possibility of reaching the Nuclear Power
Plant ASCO, further down river destabilizing the foundations of
it which would mean even more tragic consequences.
On the other hand the Navarre Channel is the project linked to
the dam and aiming to distribute water to Southern Navarre. However,
this project was passed after the dam started being polemical
and aiming to mask-up the real reasons of this infrastructure
which is the transport of water for the Mediterranean tourism
industry.
The channel is expected to be built in 15 years time and will
cost 103.725 millions pesetas. Now the politicians state that
it'll provide water to Navarre's capital Iruñea (Pamplona),
but their better trick was to present it as the source of water
for Southern Navarre's agriculture.
The other group opposing this mega-project (Coordinadora de
Itoiz) stated that "they won't be able to transport even
a cubic meter of water" due to the problem that we explained
before. They
compared the inauguration event with Francoist pantomimes.
