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Restoration of the Ivars i Vila-sana lagoon

Vila-sana, Pla d'Urgell, Lleida

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Restoration of the Ivars i Vila-sana lagoon

Historical milestone · Vila-sana, Pla d'Urgell, Lleida

The estany d'Ivars i Vila-sana occupies an endorheic basin of millennial origin, formerly a shallow, brackish lagoon that used to dry up in summer, until the Canal d'Urgell, built in 1861, brought a steady supply of irrigation water and turned it into one of the largest lagoons in inland Catalonia, a centre of duck hunting and eel fishing for the neighbouring villages. A first attempt at draining it failed in 1914 due to the opposition of irrigators, but a later sanitation project managed to dry it in 1951, against popular will. On 19 February 1993 the town councils of Ivars d'Urgell and Vila-sana signed a protocol to restore it; after purchasing the plots and carrying out the works, the filling was completed in 2009, returning 126 hectares of wetland to the plain.

1993-2009

Photo: Ytub89 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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