Yesa reservoir expansion threatens the Camino Aragonés

[Anna-Marie]

My Spanish isn't the greatest, but I've been following the Spanish pilgrimage news for a few months now. This is a topic I can't find anything about in English, but it seems like something pilgrims should be aware of. I think this is accurate (based on several articles and websites I've read), but like I said, my Spanish isn't wonderful and I can't guarantee total accuracy.

The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Aragón recently ruled that the "regrowth" of the Yesa reservoir is compatible with the protection of the Camino Aragonés, which passes through the area. The growth of the reservoir will mean modifying around 20 km of the current Camino route.

According to the cleverly named YESA NO site (scroll down for English), in addition to displacing local residents and causing social disintegration, the growth of the reservoir will threaten a number of archaeological and architectural sites along the Camino. I can't tell if they'll definitely be flooded, but the site seems to say so.

That was last week. More recently, the city council of Artieda, the Asociación Río Aragón Contra el Recrecimiento de Yesa (Aragón River Association Against the Regrowth of Yesa), and the organization Apudepa said they will appeal the ruling.

It seems the ruling was justified on the grounds that the Camino no longer follows the exact route that the government of Aragón laid out in 1993, the year the route became a World Heritage Site. (From what I can tell, UNESCO considers the Camino Aragonés to be a branch of the Camino Francés, and thus an official heritage site.) So changing a section of the route has been judged legal.

The Asociación Río Aragón says that the judge was "bowing to political decisions." In a statement, it accuses Jaime Vicente, the Aragonese director general de Patrimonio, of putting "his political career ahead of the ethical commitments that should go along with a job like his." It calls the Yesa reservoir "a systematic attack on the route of the Camino de Santiago."

The Yesa reservoir is one of the reasons that, in December 2011, more than eighty Camino associations signed the Manifesto de Santiago, which asks UNESCO to add the Camino Francés to its list of World Heritage in Danger.

The request seems to be an attempt to shame the Spanish government into taking better care of the Camino de Santiago.

Does anyone know more about these issues? I can't find anything clear in English.

Anna-Marie

 

[caminka]

don't have any news, thought only to share which part of Camino Aragones is likely to disappear. this is the stretch between Artieda and Ruesta that runs to the right (north) of the road 137, along a beautiful little path through the forest and past the ruins of ermita s Juan Bautista, more or less above the lake.
some guides already claim that you should walk along the road as this is the only option, for example the 2008/2009 edition of Lepere's La via Tolosana (don't know the exact date as there is none).

I imagine that even more then the route to the south of Yesa, it s going to be affected the route to the north of it, via Leyre.

 

[sulu]

don't have any news, thought only to share which part of Camino Aragones is likely to disappear. this is the stretch between Artieda and Ruesta that runs to the right (north) of the road 137, along a beautiful little path through the forest and past the ruins of ermita s Juan Bautista, more or less above the lake.
some guides already claim that you should walk along the road as this is the only option, for example the 2008/2009 edition of Lepere's La via Tolosana (don't know the exact date as there is none).

I imagine that even more then the route to the south of Yesa, it s going to be affected the route to the north of it, via Leyre.

Despite protests this expansion of the reservoir is still going ahead. It will also affect the route out of Ruesta as the camp site will be flooded. There is a new road between the 'old' road and the reservoir but this is only for construction vehicles. I got the impression that the current road will be under water and that there is a new road being built higher up. This camino is going to change over the next few years, currently the stretch on the road is busy with construction vehicles.