TRAGSA ends the restoration of four inland salt works in Andalusia
18 March 2016 | Madrid
- The works will make possible to recover the geo-and-biological diversity of these sites, giving them new value as tourist destinations
Recently, the Department for the Environment and for Territorial Organization has been informed about the actions carried out – financed through the FEDER funds – for the restoration of four inland salt works in Andalusia: the Roman Salt Work of Iptuci (Prado del Rey, Cadiz), the Montejícar Salt Work (Montejícar, Granada), the Salt Work of Our Lady of the Remedies (Aguilar de la Frontera, Cordova), and the Saint Francis Salt Work (Montilla, Cordova).
The so-called inland salt works are ecosystems attached to springs, wells or to aquifers – generally of a brackish nature – which are exploited along the same lines as their shoreline counterparts. The biodiversity which they feature is very peculiar, since both its fauna and its flora are adapted to the high salinity level which characterizes the environment into which they live.
Giving new value to tourist sites
The works implemented by TRAGSA have involved the refurbishment of the infrastructures which had deteriorated for lack of use or of maintenance. The restoration of the salt works, which were extremely deteriorated, has made it possible the recovery of their functionality, providing new value to these sites as tourist assets due to their value as part of the natural heritage (biodiversity and geodiversity), and to their ethnographic wealth.
The areas have also been equipped with interpretative panel displays about the geological origin of each brackish spring, about the biodiversity in these environments, and how they operate from an ethnographic point of view. It is worthwhile to remember that it is necessary to go back to the Triassic Period, about 230 Million years ago, for knowing about the geological origin of these springs.
TRAGSA and Grupo SEPI
TRAGSA is part of Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a final workforce of around 73,000 professionals in 2014; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further ten companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies.