He explained that before the acequias, it was hard to grow food in the unstable climate of the Mediterranean, with periodic droughts. The “genius of the system,” he said, is that it slows down the water flow from the mountains to the plains in order to better retain and distribute it. Without acequias, snowmelt from mountain peaks would flow directly into rivers and lakes that dry up during the summer. With them, the melt is diverted to multiple acequias winding through the hills. It spurts from fountains in the region’s typical whitewashed villages.

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Persons: Civantos, ” Locations: acequias, Granada, Almeria, Al, Sierra Nevada