FOUNTAINS AND SPRINGS CATALOGUED IN ALMERIA
Berja and Oria have been identified as the two most important mountain springs in Almería Following work recently carried out by the Andalusian Water Agency of the Ministry of Environment the locations were said to be two of the very best examples of the feature in the Province.
It would seem that there are an endless number of such features. In some cases they are situated in the same village, whilst in many other places they are extremely remote and in some cases almost inaccessible to the public.
Unfortunately some are about to dry up, but correspondingly, many resurfaced last winter after heavy rains and once again during the summer months they were available to provide water and cool passers by on those particularly hot days.
As many of the springs dotted all over the region are not known it was decided that they should be inventoried, the goal being to provide photographic and documentary records before they disappear once again. This information was collated as part of its conservation policy by the Andalusian Water Agency of the Ministry of Environment. In gathering it all together they were assisted by members of the public who shared a similar objective to that of the agency.
The initiative was called 'Know your sources', and in the 60 municipalities of Almeria alone it identified 249 sources for inclusion in the inventory.
In the province as a whole the figure totalled 3,352 such locations, the largest number being in Granada where 773 locations were recorded whilst at the bottom of the scale Seville managed just 141.
Volunteers to help with the scheme were recruited through the website www.conocetusfuentes.com which was launched in 2008 and for anyone wishing to become involved the good news is that the project is ongoing with new volunteers sought all the time.
To participate all you have to do is to fill out a form on the site with data and photographs from the springs and sources, regardless of their size. Your information will be collated at which point a government expert will then also visit the location, to gather further information.
To date in Almeria, of the 249 water points located and categorised in the province, 65 are recorded as springs, 155 ditches, 12 new channels and the remainder wetlands. The municipalities with the highest number of inventoried springs are Berja (36), Oria (31) Vélez Blanco (15), Alcolea (13), Velez Rubio (11), Fondón (11) and Maria (10).
A spokesman said that this is the first step towards the conservation and recovery of the springs, with many at risk of disappearing due to climate change and the exploitation.