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Sky with little rain over the Sau reservoir, in the Osona region. New desert? In these images in La Vanguardia Readers’ Photos we can see the reservoir empty, since it does not even contain 3% of water.
We can see in the foreground the town of Sant Romà de Sau, which had been buried under the waters of the reservoir for many years and has now emerged as if it had emerged from a time machine.
How has this beautiful place of Les Guilleries, in Vilanova de Sau, ended up becoming a desert, with this cracked earth? The answer is days, weeks, months and years of persistent drought that have led to historic low levels of water flow.
The reservoir, inaugurated in 1962, covered the town of Sant Romà de Sau, the remains of which, especially the temple’s bell tower, are visible when the water level is low, as at the moment, when it looks more like an archaeological site with the old mill, the cemetery and the houses also visible.
The Sau reservoir, located in the municipality of Vilanova de Sau, is at the foot of the Guilleries massif. It is part of a system of three swamps, together with those of Susqueda and Pasteral, which unites the counties of Osona and La Selva.
