With its eerie, grey ruins, a ghost community has developed as drought has nearly drained a dam on the Spanish-Portuguese border, attracting throngs of tourists. Details of a lifestyle frozen in 1992, when the Aceredo village in Spain's northwestern Galicia area was flooded to create the Alto Lindoso reservoir, are being unveiled once more, with the reservoir at 15 percent of its capacity.


"It's as if I'm in the middle of a movie. I'm sad, I'm sad, I'm sad, I'm sad, I'm "Maximino Perez Romero, a 65-year-old pensioner from A Coruna, agreed. "I believe this is what will occur over time as a result of drought and other factors, as well as climate change." Visitors spotted partially collapsed roofs, stones and timber debris that formerly made up doors or columns, and even a drinking fountain with water still gushing from a rusted conduit while walking on the muddy ground cracked by the drought in some parts.


A semi-destroyed old car was rusting away behind a stone wall, while crates with empty beer bottles were heaped by what used to be a cafe. Drone footage revealed the abandoned structures. Maria del Carmen Yanez, mayor of the bigger Lobios council, of which Aceredo is a part, blamed the situation on a lack of rain in recent years, particularly in January, as well as what she described as "very aggressive exploitation" by EDP, the reservoir's manager.

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