Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 3:49:57 GMT -5
Its water is of excellent quality and its ecological richness has earned it to be part of the Natura 2000 Network, a Site of Community Importance since 2004, a Special Conservation Area since 2014 and a fundamental enclave in the Mariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo Biosphere Reserve. . The Cecebre dam represented an important investment effort in its day, because although the construction, some 100 million pesetas, was financed 50% with state aid , the expropriation of the land was carried out by the city council and was passed on completely as a fee in the water bill until 1999. Since the municipalization, awareness was also acquired of the need, expressed since the beginning of the 60s of the last century, for rates in accordance with the costs of the service, achieving balance in those years and, from there, achieving financial health that lasts to this day despite the fact that rates in A Coruña are below the national average. Cecebre's capacity in terms of flow regulation, together with the demand management policies, already outlined but non-existent at the time of Ricardo Fernández Cuevas' report (at the beginning of the 60s of the 20th century), have allowed that A Coruña has reached a high level of development without the need to carry out the expansions that were presumed at the time of its execution.
The growth forecasts at the end of the 60s established the need to expand the capacity of the reservoir to meet future demands, however this has not been necessary given that facilities such as the Refinery have reduced their consumption by 80% thanks to the reuse of water, or the Estrella Galicia brewery, which thanks to the improvement of its production processes went from using 8 liters of water per liter of beer at the beginning of this century to less than 3 liters in the new brewery. Blackberries. Domestic consumption, thanks to CZ Leads citizen awareness and technologies linked to savings such as more efficient appliances or faucet aeration systems, has allowed a 25% decrease in consumption in the last 25 years. Also, and no less important, have been the investments in infrastructure that have allowed the level of non-recorded water to be less than 10%. All these factors allow the Cecebre reservoir to continue to be a guarantee of supply in quantitative terms despite the past years and the evident increase in the standard of living and demand of society. The construction of the dam also had consequences derived from the exploitation regime. In the early 1980s, there were recurrent episodes of drought that did not affect the level of service in A Coruña as it did in other areas of Galicia. However, in 1988-89, an extreme drought meant rethinking the exploitation criteria, given that in previous years the dam had been used as a mechanism to prevent floods, which led to minimal availability in this dry spell.
Extreme. At that moment, it is emphasized that the purpose of the reservoir is to supply water to A Coruña and its area of influence and that it cannot be conditioned by the needs of limiting the danger of flooding downstream (in the years after its construction. Filling and construction were carried out in the channel area that subsequently limited its hydraulic capacity, conditioning the filling levels of the reservoir and compromising its functionality for supply). Cecebre Dam Another aspect to highlight about the reservoir is its environmental value. The water in the Mero River basin is of excellent quality and, although the infrastructure originally meant a deterioration of the environment, the quality of the stored water is not affected and over time the sheet of water constituted has become an environment of high natural value to the point of being considered SCI (Place of Community Importance) in 2004, within the Natura 2000 Network, and also its ZEC declaration (Special Conservation Area, linked to the catalog of community habitats) since 2014. Also We must highlight its importance as a nuclear element in the declaration in 2013 of the Mariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo Biosphere Reserve. These aspects of environmental quality are also the key to the quality of the water that serves as the basis for supplying the population. The commitment to maintenance and protection of the environment is the best tool to guarantee quality supply and health safety, and at Emalcsa we are fully committed to that. Proof of this is our participation in several projects linked to the conservation of ecosystems and with a quality monitoring program through the Emalcsa-UDC Chair with the high-frequency data collection system installed in different parts of the basin.