Hi Colin
Our spanish friends have told us that the canal was built after the spanish civil war by franco's prisoners of war.  It starts near to Xerta but has never been connected to the River Ebro where the water to fill it was to come from, therefore it has always remained dry.  It ends in Valencia province at a place called Calig.  Rumour has it that the canal would not have been very successful as the prisoners seemed to have constructed it uphill in places.  Of course work is currently underway to renew the canal and pump water to it from the Ebro, although the refurbished canal's end point will now be on the borders of Catalonia and Valencia, at La Senia.  We have been told that water towers will be constructed between 80 and 100m high along the route to help with flow. Its purpose is supposedly for irrigation use along the route and the last part of the canal is due to be narrowed width-wise so that only small amounts of water would reach La Senia.  the engineers for the construction are based in the village of els Reguers at the town hall and we found out the above information from the secretary of the Els Reguers community of irrigators.      Ebrorob

Went again last week to see they are now working on the refurbishment of it. Soon to be a wet canal, methinks.