Soria

[Stefan]

Hi hi, I was in Gran Canaria last March and April and I spent a couple of extremely enjoyable days driving in the mountains in the South. Really striking scenery and plenty of places to stop and take a good walk away from the hustle and bustle of the resorts.One day I drove from Arguineguín through Cercados de Espinos to the reservoir at Soria, then further up to the lake at Cueva de las Ninas and back down the Mogan valley. One thing struck me as odd.Last winter was one of the wettest for many years and the reservoirs were all pretty much full, (Chira and Las Ninas seemed to be overflowing),except for Soria. Walking around the lake it seemed to me that the dam is much higher than some of the houses near the lake and the vegetation there didn't really look like it got submerged every couple of years or so.Today on canarias7.es I saw that after the recent rainfall the reservoir levels are again pretty healthy but again the picture of Soria shows that it's a very long way from filling up. Can any of you regulars tell me why this is? Is the catchment area for Soria much smaller than the other reservoirs or do they purposely keep the level low for some reason?

[mary]

Sorry, havent got a clue. Valleys and subsequently water tend to be privately owned - Puerto Rico at present is owned by one family who have their own water company
The next valley and all the way up to Arguineguin is owned by someone else and so the residents have to buy their water from them.
Maybe one of these families owns one of the reservoirs and the Soria one has a leak and so alot is lost???

[Stefan]

Thanks anyway Mary. In your reply you did actually answer another question I had as to whether water supply was privatized or public works. Here in Iceland it's all public works. The law states that access to fresh water is a basic right and no-one is allowed to profit from it's sale or distribution. I see that's not the case over there.

Stefan
Iceland