These preventive hydraulic infrastructures prevent a flood from collapsing the main basin with sediments, weeds and debris.
Some ten smaller settling basins along the ravine and a larger one just at the entrance to the dam form this system.
The Cabildo of Fuerteventura, from the Works and Machinery service, and in coordination with the City Council of Puerto del Rosario and the Water Island Council of Fuerteventura (CIAF), has begun the work of removing aggregates and various obstacles from the decanters that from Tetir protect the dam of La Herradura. It will be a conscientious work in the decanters system and in the dam itself that will last more than a month.
For the president of the Cabildo, Lola Garcia, it is important to continue improving the safety and drainage conditions of ravine beds and other hydraulic systems that are distributed throughout the territory of Fuerteventura.
The Councilor for Works and Machinery, Blas Acosta, points out the importance of these preventive works in the hydraulic systems of the island. “Our ravines are natural channels that collect rainwater, increasingly in intense and very localized episodes, and therefore must be clean of obstacles, to facilitate the arrival of water in floods to dams, ponds and gullies or, failing that, to the sea, and prevent flooding of public infrastructure and private property.”
Within the framework of this coordination, the Water Councilor, Adargoma Hernández, values the planning from the Insular Water Council to improve the hydraulic systems, in this case optimizing the drainage conditions and avoiding risks of overflows, which allows to improve the use of such a necessary resource as water.
The hydraulic system of the La Herradura dam consists of a dozen smaller decanters along the ravine, from Tetir, and a larger one at the entrance to the dam. Work has begun on the main decanter.
The Cabildo’s machinery removes sediments, weeds and debris to return them to their original capacity and keep them operational in case of heavy rains, since the function of these cavities in the ground is precisely to retain the solids that may be carried by a flood so that they do not reach the dam and collapse the storage capacity of the reservoir.
This intervention of the Works and Machinery Service in La Herradura is part of the work program directed by Blas Acosta, in coordination with the CIAF and the affected municipalities, to keep the hydraulic systems of Fuerteventura operational, from the cleaning and clearing of ravines and water crossings under roads to the restoration of dams, ponds and marshes.
