The Regional Government approves reservoirs for eleven fire-damaged villages across five provinces

The Regional Government of Castilla y León has approved the works plan to construct water reservoirs in eleven municipalities of Ávila, León, Palencia, Salamanca, and Zamora affected by the forest fires of the summer of 2025. This is done through Order AGR/1219/2026, dated November 6, signed by Councilor Joaquín Antonio Pino and published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León No. 219, dated November 12, 2026 (reference BOCYL-D-12112026-219-15, pages 77 to 79). The infrastructures are intended to improve extensive livestock farms and to provide water points for firefighting equipment.

From the reconstruction agreement to the works plan

The origin of the decision lies in point 23 of the annex to Agreement 34/2025, dated August 20, of the Regional Government of Castilla y León, which schedules actions for the recovery of areas affected by forest fires in the summer of 2025. That section provided for “promoting the immediate execution of reservoirs for the affected city councils or those included in the perimeter determined as appropriate, to improve extensive livestock farms and their territorial environment.”

The Directorate General for Rural Development formulated the approval proposal on October 14, 2026, after conducting a feasibility study among the submitted requests. Only those that met the program’s conditions were accepted. The order is issued under Article 65 of Law 1/2014, of March 19, the Agrarian Law of Castilla y León, which grants the department competent in agrarian matters the authority to approve works plans.

Eleven municipalities and four types of work per reservoir

The city councils whose requests have been accepted are as follows:

• Cipérez (Salamanca).
• San Bartolomé de Pinares (Ávila).
• Guardo (Palencia).
• Almanza, Castrocontrigo, Villamontán de la Valduerna, and Puente de Domingo Flórez (León).
• Ferreruela, San Pedro de Ceque, Ferreras de Arriba, and Riofrío de Aliste (Zamora).

León and Zamora concentrate four municipalities each; Ávila, Palencia, and Salamanca contribute one. Each action comprises a common package of works: intake works, filling pipeline, the reservoir itself, valve house, perimeter fencing, crown road, access points, and environmental integration works. Two hydrants are also included: one for the supply of tankers and another for the supply of fire-fighting pumpers.

Public infrastructures and no automatic right to the work

The order classifies the works as agricultural infrastructures according to Article 62 of Law 1/2014 and considers them publicly owned agricultural infrastructures according to Article 63, promoted and executed by the department itself. The Directorate General for Rural Development is entrusted with issuing the necessary resolutions to implement the plan.

The text incorporates a relevant caution for the beneficiary city councils: inclusion in the plan does not confer any right to mandatory construction if the studies conducted after publication determine the infeasibility of the request. Publication in the bulletin serves as notification, as the act is addressed to an indeterminate plurality of persons in accordance with article 45.1.a) of Law 39/2015, of October 1.

Against the order, which exhausts the administrative route, an optional appeal for reversal may be filed before the counselor within one month, or a contentious-administrative appeal may be filed before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León, based in Valladolid, within two months.

A program that already includes seven other actions

This is not the first resolution of this type. On October 15, 2026, the same department published Order AGR/1047/2026, of October 7, with a similar works plan for seven municipalities in Salamanca and Zamora (including Fuentes de Oñoro, Mayalde, Peñausende, Bermillo de Sayago, San Felices de los Gallegos, Hinojosa de Duero, and Monleón), within the Ponds Plan approved by Order AGR/1358/2023, of November 23, for the improvement of extensive livestock farming with a 2026 horizon and framed within the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.

The approval of these plans does not yet set a schedule or execution budget, but it does enable the regional ministry to tender and construct the infrastructures. For the villages burned in 2025, the pond serves simultaneously as a watering hole for extensive livestock and an emergency reservoir for firefighting operations, two uses that proved critical during a summer of major fires.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla y León, no. 219, November 12, 2026, section I.D (Other provisions), p. 77 (official reference: BOCYL-D-12112026-219-15).