The work had reached the ibones of Arrieles, Respomuso, Bachimaña, Brazatos, Bramatueros, Azules, Marboré, Ip, Campoplano and Urdiceto. Funding had been provided in equal parts by the Endesa Foundation and Ibercaja, under an agreement signed in 2004 that also involved the Government of Aragon, the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, Endesa and five Pyrenean municipalities.
The work made it possible to remove facilities, metal structures and cables and transfer them to controlled landfills. Numerous buildings in Bachimaña that were practically in ruins were demolished, and an old cable-car line that posed a danger to aviation was removed. In Campoplano, meanwhile, the former cable-car platform was restored, while pylons were removed and helipads were installed at several hard-to-reach locations.
Representatives of the entities involved visited the ibón of Urdiceto to take stock of this first phase. The then regional minister for the Environment of the Government of Aragon, Alfredo Boné, described the day as “a great day” for the environment and for those who lived in the mountains.
The then president of the Government of Aragon, Marcelino Iglesias, summed up the aim of the work by saying that it sought to “repair what we damaged in other periods.” He also argued that development could be reconciled with the conservation of a “living Pyrenees.”
The project still had a second stage ahead: between May and October in 2007 and 2008, work was scheduled to be carried out at the ibón of Llauset, in Montanuy, with an investment of 1.1 million euros.
The removal of old facilities and the restoration of ten ibones thus brought two years of work in the Aragonese mountains to a close. This is how we reported it in Aragón Digital 20 years ago, in the original article on the restoration of the Pyrenean ibones.
