Rivers are summer pools in any mountain town. We have already said this about Andalusian natural pools. But when Madrid wants to build Spain’s biggest pool, it’s unusual to see someone diverting part of a river to create their own work. And that’s what someone did in Oseja, a municipality in the French Pyrenees: they built a barrier in the bed of the Vanera so that the water calms down and there is a pool for bathing. It has been going on for two years. Until last Friday, October 9, when a Kubota excavator entered and removed the stones, according to Diario Vasco.
Where. It did not take place on Spanish territory. Ouseja is in French Cerdany, belonging to the Pyrenees-Orientales department. The Vanera, called Lavanera in Catalan, is a cross-border river with Spain, according to L’Indépendant. Shortly after collecting the information, technical teams of the city council entered the riverbed with machines to demolish the dams constructed without permission. The fishermen had already raised the alarm. According to L’Indépendant, the association detected the act a few months ago and warned that fewer and fewer fish were appearing in the river.
La Fario de la Vanera Association also participated in the expedition, and it had the approval of the Departmental Directorate of Territories and the Sea (DDTM) and the French Biodiversity Office (OFB). The council says the structure acts as a sort of natural pool in the summer.
Homemade dam. The problem wasn’t just that he was AWOL. The city council warns that such blockages significantly alter water circulation, favor sedimentation and cause temperature rise. All of these can unbalance the river’s ecosystem and damage the habitat of the trout that inhabit it. Although its purpose was recreational, the dam was an artificial alteration of the river bed.
Who and how much. Little is known about the author of the dam. Melty spoke of a neighbor who turned the river into a swimming pool and whose identity has not been released. What is repeated in all the media is the figure of 1,500 euros. But approval has not been imposed yet and it is not clear how the file is progressing at the moment.
What the law says. For years, French law has prohibited deliberately obstructing the free flow of water along river courses. The Environmental Code provides for a fifth class fine for this violation, which can reach the aforementioned 1,500 euros. There is a more serious step: if the act requires prior approval or declaration and is done without it, it can constitute a crime, up to one year in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. Nothing suggests it’s going that way. This is not what the legal framework and authorities have declared.
But beware: in France, anyone who owns both banks of a stream also owns the bed and can maintain and clean it. Of course, water is considered the nation’s common heritage, so building a pool requires permission to cut off access to it.
What is lacking in knowledge? Beyond knowing who the author is (unlikely unless he admits it of his own volition or enjoys a pool of trauma) the channel remains to be reconstructed. After the “demolition” of the artificial dam, it is also known whether a report has already been issued or whether a formal complaint will be made. What comes next is a claim for the cost of removing the dam (and hours of digging ain’t cheap, I assure you).
After that, it is now up to the authorities whether to apply only a fine of 1,500 euros or to open a criminal case. At this point, the local press talks about the risk, not the sentence. The only certainty is that the pool no longer exists and the vanes are back to running unimpeded.
And in Spain? In Spain, home-made hydraulic inventions fared worse. Here the penalty will be very high. The water law punishes working without authorization in a channel with fines ranging from 10,000 euros (mild) to 1,000,000 (very serious), depending on the damage. According to an announcement from the region of Murcia, the regulation classifies violations as serious for damages of less than 3,000 euros and between 15,000 and 150,000. As a gift, hydrographic confederations could impose coercive fines and paralyze the work. The usual thing is a fine and dismantling at the expense of the offender.
Jail is effective only in case of serious damage. Section 325 of the Penal Code provides for imprisonment of two to five years for violating environmental laws, extracting, extracting or collecting water that causes or is likely to cause substantial harm to water, animals or plants and seriously damages the natural balance. 3 to 6 months in jail for diverting water without permission. A homemade dam for bathing rarely reaches that threshold on its own, but administration disobedience or significant flow can do so.
Picture | Oseja Town Hall
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