The source of the Peregil or the Council, in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville), was in the middle of the 20th century a huge trough that gave drink to the mules and donkeys that came or went from the Andalusian capital.
Nowadays it has become a forgotten pile without any water that cars pass by.
This is one of the more than 12,500 natural sources cataloged by the Manantiales y fuentes de Andalucía project, an initiative of the University of Granada and the CSIC that seeks to recover this valuable heritage with the help of citizens.
This great
Wikipedia
of Andalusian sources started in 2007 has a director and 1,400 authors. "From professors to shepherds," says Antonio Castillo Martín, CSIC hydrogeologist and researcher at the Water Institute of the University of Granada, in addition to being responsible for the project, who estimates that for now half of the sources and springs of this community. "From the beginning we had sufficient clarity of ideas to know that success was going to lie in citizen participation, something pioneering 14 years ago", says the researcher, who explains that over the years it becomes more difficult to find these points of water, once essential for life in these lands.
The exhaustiveness of this search for sources - "always sources of natural births, we do not include sources of drinking networks", Castillo clarifies - has turned the project into the unofficial catalog used by official institutions. Each card includes name, photos, coordinates, description, origin of the water and as much information as possible. One of the most productive collaborators is Luis Cano, a telecommunications engineer by profession, a specialist in geographic information systems and a naturalist in his spare time. Although he lives and works in Madrid, he does not miss the opportunity to get closer to the Sierra de Cazorla where he was born and he has only contributed more than 1,200 files of sources and springs. Cano's search process is apparently simple: "Maps, walks and the experience of 40 years traveling the mountains."Lately he has added aerial photos. "In Cazorla, we have already cataloged more than 90% of the existing ones," says the engineer, who emphasizes that work is almost impossible in areas "where there are many private farms and cannot be accessed, Sierra Morena for example."
Luis Cano, next to the Los Merguizos waterfalls, in the Sierra de Cazorla. Luis Cano
The Algarbe Fountain, in Zagra (Granada), a natural source of water in poor condition and abandoned, is one of the latest contributions and represents a common evil in many of these points: "The effect on the flow by pumping or bypassing", says his token.
In other words, the illegal overexploitation of the water at some point causes it to stop coming out of the pool spout.
But it is not all bad news.
In La Peza (Granada), the Albiñuelas fountain was once the center of life for the farmhouse of the same name.
Today, decades later, the natural spring is in very good condition and offers a considerable water pipe that the local shepherd still uses to water his goats.
Adolfo Ventas is another of the regular contributors to this catalog. Although he also provides new water points, as he himself explains, his fundamental task consists of filling in the gaps of the incomplete cards. Sometimes volunteers do not provide all the data and these sources are parked until the information is expanded. "Photos and coordinates are usually missing," says Ventas. This collaborator residing in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville) has completed the missing information from all sources in the provinces of Seville, Huelva and Córdoba.
To carry out this meticulous task, in addition to walking a lot, Sales has discovered the importance of Facebook as a search space. He reaches the sites that cannot be approached through the groups that many peoples have created in this social network. Thanks to one from Valverde del Camino (Huelva) he got photos and location of some sources in the area. The virtual connection was later completed when some members of the group accompanied him on a search journey through the nearby mountains that allowed him to improve the information on other files.
This catalog is not a mere enumeration, but an X-ray of the situation of these natural suppliers in Andalusia. "It is clear that many of these water points are at risk of being lost," says Castillo. In the case of the Algarbe fountain, in Zagra (Granada), the file says: “At present it is completely abandoned, in poor condition and dry, which does not seem very logical if only five years ago its condition was very better and with water. It is not understood how, in such a short time, it has entered such an unusual decline (especially if we take into account the number of years that it has been able to stay healthy). He certainly had a more glorious past ”.
Abandonment is another of the most common causes of forgetting these sources.
Many had agricultural use or brought water to the farmhouses, but when those uses are lost, the undergrowth makes its way and the appearance of the place changes until it is completely erased from the collective memory.
According to Ventas, this is what happened with the Fountain of Los Perros, in Alpandeire (Málaga).
He went there with the author of the original file that was incomplete, but it was impossible to find it.
"The man had not visited her for more than 30 years, he put the coordinates a little by chance," he recalls.
Manantial de San José, in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) A.
Sales
Strong employee engagement often pays off with great payoff. As Cano points out, the searches take them to amazing sites: “One of the most spectacular springs in the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park is Los Merguizos, two parallel waterfalls that can only be seen when it rains a lot or when it melts. after a snowfall in the upper area of the mountains ”, details the engineer, who explains that this wonder is located at the source of the Aguamula river. "The aquifer has to be heavily loaded with the high water table for water to come out of the waterfalls."
Another rather unique location is the San José spring, in Morón de la Frontera (Seville).
Its file indicates that it is highly brackish water that was used by the townspeople for skin conditions.
However, as the water stopped being used for this purpose, the paths that led there were gradually lost: “Nowadays you practically have to make your way through brambles, gorse and other Mediterranean vegetation, so access, even with permission, is very complicated".
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