The abandoned dam in Montejaque, in Málaga, filled with water after heavy rains

Heavy rains in various parts of Spain are causing numerous problems, especially in Andalusia.

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The successive storms that have been dumping rain on Andalusia have caused rivers to overflow, flooding, and evacuations in some towns. In Montajaque (Málaga), a town in the Ronda mountains, an unusual situation is unfolding, related to an abandoned reservoir that was never filled. The YouTube channel Aventuras Entresierras published a video about the abandoned Montejaque dam in October 2022, showing it empty:

In that interesting video, Aventuras Entresierras showed us that dam completely empty. As you may recall, its construction was completed in 1924, after only nine months of work, and it became the largest arch dam in Spain, at 74 meters high. This is what the inside of its arch looked like in that video published by Aventuras Entresierras:

The Montejaque dam had a short lifespan and never reached full capacity due to the reservoir's permeable soil, as the impounded water disappeared within hours due to seepage. What many residents of the area never imagined is the appearance of the Montejaque dam today after the heavy rains. We can see it thanks to a video published a few hours ago by Arunda Senderismo. As we can see, the water level has almost reached the top of the dam's dome (NOTE: The video preview is generated by artificial intelligence and does not reflect what is actually seen in the video):

El Mundo reported today at 1:39 PM: “Concern in the Málaga mountains over the situation of the Montejaque dam: 'It's very old and you can hear buzzing sounds'”. This media outlet indicates that the delegate of the Andalusian Regional Government in Málaga, Patricia Navarro, has traveled to Montejaque to reassure its residents and “convey complete peace of mind regarding the state of the dam, which is under 24-hour surveillance”. The central government's sub-delegate in Malaga, Javier Salas, has indicated that this dam is being subjected to "extreme surveillance", as its current state "endangers the Hundidero and Gato cave systems", since, "if it were to overflow, the water could affect the area and the rivers".

On January 17, Arunda Senderismo published this other video showing the state of that abandoned dam at the time, which was already starting to store water but at a much lower level than now:

Let us remember that there have recently been complaints from engineers about the state of active dams due to a lack of funds for their maintenance. Antena 3 published on February 1st: "Experts warn that between 120 and 130 dams have structural problems, some very serious. 40% are classified as Category A: their collapse would seriously affect urban areas."

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Main image: Arunda Senderismo.