How a 1,000-year-old system of irrigation channels could help protect Spain from extreme heat

The acequias, from the Arabic word "as-saqiya" — meaning water conduit — were built by the Moors between the eighth and 10th centuries in what was then known as the Al-Andalus region of the Iberian Peninsula.

The acequias was an elegant solution of moving water that transformed the entire landscape of the mountainous region.

Spain's Andalusia region has a Mediterranean climate with long summers and dry winters. 

When the Moors introduced the acequias to Spain and used it to move water more effectively through the mountains, they changed the landscape. Now the Andalusian provinces, Granada and Almeria, are the leading agricultural regions in Spain.  

 

 

The acequias take water from snowmelt and precipitation up in the hills and mountains of Spain.

By diverting the water into these constructed pathways, the snowmelt is able to slow down and replenish more of the land along the way.

Without the acequias, the snowmelt would run into rivers and lakes that dry in the summer, and the water would have a shorter life.

Acequias also replenish aquifers and feed streams and rivers that originate further down the mountain. As the water moves through acequias, it soaks into the soil and is stored in the bedrock until it's needed again.

While the water moves through the acequias, it not only replenishes aquifers but it irrigates crops, softens the soil, and even fills fountains throughout the Andalusian region.

However, in recent decades, the acequias were abandoned in favor of industrial practices.

In the 1960s, Spain began to favor using reservoirs for farming, pushing rural farmers away from small farms. Spaniards in rural areas started leaving for cities; according to the National Statistics Office, the country has lost around 28% of its countryside population over the past 50 years.

As people vacated these rural areas, around 15-20% acequias were abandoned.

 

Over time, debris, rubble, grass, and other plants have grown over and into the forgotten acequias.

Temperatures have also been increasing in Spain, which have been devastating for farmland.

The rising temperatures combined with the rise of industrial farms have left the Alpujarra region of Spain barren as water is diverted to larger, more financially lucrative farms.

To combat severe drought and its effects on farms, farmers, volunteers, and researchers in Spain are working together to revitalize acequias systems.

Armed with garden tools, shovels, and pickaxes, these volunteer groups work together to help bring water back to drought-stricken areas.  

Thanks to the restored acequias, farmers have said that they've been able to regrow fruit crops again.

However, the ancient technology presents a unique set of problems.

In order to maintain functional operation, these communities need to build back strong generational knowledge of acequias.

As fewer people live in rural areas, the cultural knowledge of where acequias are located and how they work has diminished.

The disappearance of this knowledge makes it harder to find acequias and know how to operate them. 

In an interview with BBC, Jose Antonio Peña, an "acequiero" who tends to the acequias, said these customs are being lost because, "young people don't want to know about it."

Because the money produced by local farming can't compete with larger-scale industrial agriculture, there's a lack of financing for acequias reconstruction.

"If you understand efficiency in terms of multifunctionality, then the traditional irrigation systems are much more efficient. They better retain water, they recharge the aquifers, they improve the fertility of the soils," Martín Civantos, a Spanish archaeologist coordinating the acequias project, told the New York Times.