Restoring European rivers: a win-win scenario for humans and nature

The European Union's biodiversity strategy aims to free up 25,000 km of rivers before 2030. This includes removing unnecessary barriers such as dams, with positive results seen in Spain and Estonia.

Castilla y León is one of Europe's most advanced regions in terms of river restoration. We visited a demolition site in the province of Segovia, where a dam, the remains of a hydroelectric station, had been abandoned for decades.

"This is an obsolete structure that presents structural risks. It is harming the quality of the water, which is forcing us to take other measures that are more costly than removing the structure itself," explains Arturo Prieto Blanco, technical director of the Duero Hydrographic Confederation. "The river will be restored to the state it was in, a few decades ago. These are the cheapest actions available to us because they last forever. "

More than 330 abandoned dams were removed in Europe last year. A third of them were in Spain. However, these projects often face reluctance from the locals. As seen in the neighbouring village of Navafria.

"They should have been emptied and cleaned." says one villager. Another thinks, "It costs a lot of money to remove a dam that wasn't really bothering anyone."

 For some, removing the damn means the river cannot be exploited.  "If you remove it, the river flows uselessly into the sea."

We spoke to Pao Fernandez Garrido, Project Manager for the Dam Removal Europe initiative. The movement aims to 'liberate' rivers.

She explained that a lot of disinformation is circulating online regarding dam removals.

"They make people fear that there will be no more water to put out fires or for irrigation. But the structures are abandoned and not being used. A lot of them are filled to the