Sau Reservoir
Conference by Joan LagunasFriday, 23 de gener a les 19.00 h
Until the late nineteenth century, the valley of Sau was a kind of "terra incognita" when, in 1902, a proposal was made to take advantage of the waters of the Guilleries gorge. The Hydraulic Infrastructure Plan of 1912 defined the Sau reservoir as one of these steps to be taken, but the first draft of the initial reservoir project was not made until 1931.
In November 1941 the state declared all works on the Sau reservoir " to be implemented with urgency" for the purposes of land-use, lands which must be forcibly expropriated. Until the completion of the works, almost 40 engineering, renovation and update projects were drafted. August 1963 saw the closing of the dam gates, and the reservoir started retaining water. In February 1965, the reservoir was put into operation.
The transformation brought about by the Sau reservoir not only affected the landscape and the population of the village of Sant Romà de Sau , but also major industries at the head of the reservoir, as well as forestry, agriculture and cattle-raising native to the valley. Around the reservoir, new activities would appear.
Joan Lagunas Riera is currently retired and finishing the book "L'embassament de Sau" Until 2005, he worked as a manager and finance director at Editorial Eumo and at the UVic.
This lecture forms part of the exhibition Without Landscape by Arturo / fito Rodríguez Bornaetxea - Igor Rezola - Mawatres, Juan Pablo Orduñez, in which Mawatres, Juan Pablo Orduñez will present a paper on Sant Romà de Sau which is connected to this lecture.
Image by Agència Catalana de l'Aigua
