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tuesday 11 march 2025
Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa
Esa urtegia

Zigoze, a town threatened by the Yesa reservoir, surrounded by a wall

  • The town of Zigoze is located in Aragon, on the banks of the Esca River, near its mouth in the Yesa reservoir. On the occasion of the expansion of the reservoir, at that point – at the back of the reservoir – a water dam will be built which, in view of the possible invasion of the Esca river by this dam, has erected a wall that can be seen in the photograph introduced by Silvia Mellado on one side of Zigoze.
Jon Torner Zabala
07 February 2020 - 10:45
Sigüés herria, urari eusteko murruak inguratua / @smelladocruz
Zarata mediatikoz beteriko garai nahasiotan, merkatu logiketatik urrun eta irakurleengandik gertu dagoen kazetaritza beharrezkoa dela uste baduzu, ARGIA bultzatzera animatu nahi zaitugu. Geroz eta gehiago gara, jarrai dezagun txikitik eragiten.

The Che Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) has specified that the project envisages an investment of EUR 27 million to build an infrastructure that simulates an artificial lake next to the town. "Citizenship will gain a space for its use," can be read in the news they published when they began to raise the parietal. For the construction of the dam, several deposits and orchards have been expropriated, as well as several homes, according to the Basque Department of the Interior. In the article published in October 2017, the publication ElDiario.es points out that there were ten residents who were forced to leave their homes in a town of about 60 inhabitants.

"Voice to silence"

As the journalist Miguel Barluenga explains in that article, the ten neighbours put the case in the hands of their lawyers in order to at least delay the expropriation order. In addition, he announced that there would be no mobilizations or protests against the new infrastructure in the municipality of Zigoze, as the youngest neighbor affected was about 70 years old, another example of "depopulation and aging" of the area.

Joaquín Palacín, Director-General for Spatial Planning, missed a further move against: "In Artieda or Milanos the attitude against Esa was very clear; in Zigoz we were asked to give voice to the crisis situation." Palacín is one of the leaders of the Chunta Aragonesista party. Concerned about the future of Zigoze, the CHA has shown its discomfort in the Aragonese institutions, but, as Palacín said, the attitude of the citizens has not been as calm as in other places in their surroundings...

Artieda: Collective response to the threat of the Yesa dam

Precisely, in last week’s ARGIA issue, Kattalin Barber wrote the report Artieda de Aragón, which has become a symbol of the fight against the expansion of the Esa swamp. Barber refers to the movement against works and other initiatives that have emerged on his back, such as dealing with the phenomenon of "depopulation and ageing", to which we referred earlier.

Esa urtegia Aragoi
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