CALCULATIONS by a local resident have revealed that for every additional centimetre of water added to the Montejaque dam once it reaches capacity, 20 million litres of water will gush out.
This means just 10cm would force 200 million litres into the Guadiaro Valley and that a rise of one metre would unleash an extraordinary two billion litres of water.
With water levels continuing to climb, and the dam currently just 26cm from overflowing, authorities are warning locals and residents of the impending emergency.
“We’re all very worried as the water is right at the top of the dam and just starting to go over,” a resident has told the Olive Press.
Hundreds have been evacuated from Benaojon, where the dam is located, and neighbouring towns.
People are not only fearful of the effect that an overflow could have on housing but also of the chaos it could cause to surrounding nature.
The same resident said that worries are present surrounding the cave system and the potential that it could collapse and cause an avalanche due to pressure from the water.
All of this commotion has been caused by a human mistake made over a century ago.
When Swiss engineer Grüner built the dam in the 1920s it was considered to be a cutting-edge creation as it included a ‘wafer-thin’ double-curvature arch.
While its construction was an engineering feat, upon its completion in 1924 a huge mistake was revealed to have been made.
The dam had been built on porous limestone meaning that water seeps into the stone’s caves and cracks instead of being held in the walls.
For the decades following it rarely held any water; each downpour would slightly fill it up but then almost all of the water would leak down into the stone.
The way in which it naturally drained itself meant that spillways and outflow gates were never built – usually these implementations are used to release water when dams get too full.
This omission has not had consequences until today.
Now locals are watching on, from home or afar, as they wait to see what will happen when water tips over the edge.
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