Malaga launches rigorous emergency plan to stabilise El Tomillar reservoir

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Located in the Campanillas district, this striking and little-known facility can supply the city with water for ten days in emergencies

Chus Heredia

Thursday, 19 March 2026, 13:09

The El Tomillar dam near Malaga city's PTA complex is a little known but key facility that requires the highest safety standards due to its proximity to the population. To secure its correct operation, the city council has contracted emergency works for almost 155,000 euros.

Obratec is the company that will perform the work in this small reservoir that has the capacity to supply Malaga city for ten days in the case of an emergency or a breakdown.

The company will review the safety of the dam, inspect and monitor the maintenance of facilities, review the operating rules, train personnel and carry out the necessary reports.

In addition, the plan includes the installation of seismographs and weather stations, control of leaks and monitoring of the Pilones stream.

A large reservoir in the shape of a dam

El Tomillar could be described as a large reservoir in the shape of a dam. It can store 2.9 million cubic metres of water and is ten times smaller than the El Limonero dam.

The reservoir is not a regulation facility. Its water comes from the supply canal, from both the Guadalhorce and Casasola reservoirs. It has no major problems of sedimentation and silting and the water is normally quite clean. The only problem for the reservoir basin are some landslides on the slopes.

In terms of the actual water supply, it maintains an important balance, harmonising the network's needs at any given time with the flows coming from the reservoirs. Furthermore, it standardises water quality in the face of turbidity or conductivity (salt) spikes.

2.9

million cubic metres is the capacity of the Pilones or El Tomillar dam

As with all these facilities, the bottom drains are periodically opened to maintain them in good working order.

In 2018, there was a landslide that affected the main canal and water was not arriving from the Guadalhorce reservoirs, so the Tomillar was used to maintain the supply to the city.

The dam is made of loose materials and has a height above the foundations of 47 metres. Its crest is at 104 metres and has a length of 310 metres.

Its maximum drainage capacity, with the reservoir at the project's flood level, would be 51 cubic metres per second and 86 in the case of an extreme flood level. The bottom drains are two 220-metre pipes, each with a capacity to drain 15.5 cubic metres per second.

Pilones water treatment plant

Almost at the foot of the dam, there is a drinking water treatment plant (Pilones), which has long been the subject of work to turn it into a kind of twin of the El Atabal desalination plant.

The idea is still in the preliminary studies phase, but it could become a strategic element for enhancing the supply to Malaga and its surroundings, with a capacity of 2,000 litres per second. In times of drought, when not only the quantity decreases but also the composition tends to worsen, it is a plus for resource management.