The Gabas dam has reached its all-time low according to the Adour Institution. This reservoir, built in 2005 near the enclaves between Béarn and Bigorre, is the largest in the ADOUR basin. It can contain up to 20 million cubic meters of water, except that today there are still less than 3 million, i.e. 20 days of capacity before reaching the minimum reserve.
“A little less than three million cubic meters, that corresponds to 13% of its total capacity, indicates Stéphane Simon, the head of the water resources department of the Adour Institution. We always keep a fish tank of 700,000, or even a million cubic meters for the fish that are in the dam. By further lowering the rate of releases with the end of the samples for agricultural crops, we hope to hold out until September 20 with perhaps some rain by then.
– Yannick DAMONT
More fish in the rivers
The Gabas dam therefore still manages to support the water levels of the Gabas and the Léez, plain rivers of North Béarn, but for Hervé TERRADOT-PIOT, fish farming technician at the APPMA du Pesquit, the ecological disaster has already taken place with too hot water. “The problem, he explains, it is the quality of the restored water. According to the latest records, ohn is 25° C on the Léez and 24.9° C on the Gabas. Those are lethal temperatures for trout. At the start of the irrigation season, the water that is released (which comes from the bottom of the dam) is much too cold to allow the reproduction of white fish. Two months later, and in particular this year with the peaks of heat, it becomes too hot for the salmonids which are dying little by little. The technician also warns of the probable presence of cyanobacteria in this dam as in all the dams of North Béarn. He regrets that there is no analysis carried out by the owners of these reservoirs.