Marbella awards contract for refurbishment of derelict Las Medranas dam

This is the second phase of the project, following the cleaning up of the area that had been subject to constant dumping.

The initial works at the San Pedro Alcántara facility included the temporary refurbishment of the spillway and the bottom dam, the installation of perimeter fencing and the removal of the downstream sluice gate to prevent blockages.

Marbe Ingeniería specialises in civil engineering projects. The company will have five months to draw up the technical document, which will set out the details of the works, including the budget and the timeframe. Initial estimates suggest that the project will cost three million euros.

Built in 1884 to supply water to the former agricultural areas of San Pedro Alcántara and El Ángel (along with the reservoirs of Viejo del Ángel, Nuevo del Ángel, Las Tortugas and Lagomar), Las Medranas is now in a "critical condition".

Sludge deposits had "rendered unusable" the bottom outlet, making the spillway "practically non-existent". This would lead to "multiple" floods with water spilling over the dam crest, which also caused erosion and the onset of subsidence at the foot of the foundation downstream of the dam.

Las Medranas is a category A dam due to the risk its potential failure and malfunction pose, given the serious consequences this would have for residential areas such as Balcón de San Pedro and Guadalmina Baja, several golf courses and the A-7 motorway.

The first part of the action plan involved completely draining the reservoir and taking the "necessary" measures to prevent it from filling up again during the period required to ensure the dam's safety. The reservoir must now be brought back into operation and integrated into Marbella's network of natural and leisure areas.

During this phase, workers will remove and relocate a high-level water supply pipeline situated on the crest. Then, they will set up a new installation to interconnect the Campo de Gibraltar and Costa del Sol systems, using the available land for this purpose.

Las Medranas draws water from the Chopo stream and receives a substantial supply via an irrigation channel from the Guadaiza river and the Leche reservoir, situated to the north-west, in Benahavís.

The reservoir is rectangular, 148 metres long and 12.75 metres high from the foundations. Its capacity is just 329,000 cubic metres and its floodplain covers only nine hectares.

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