Yesa, a serious problem that has come to the forefront of current affairs, repeats the patron saint of Spanish illiteracy as far as the management of crises caused by natural or provoked hazards is concerned. Sixty families have been forcibly evicted, two housing developments may become irrecoverable, the lack of foresight and the lack of an adequate knowledge of the environment have tripled the budget. Even today we do not have a reliable geological model of the cortical structure that supports the Yesa dam. But worst of all is the possible threat to a historic city: Sangüesa, the city of Sancho Garcés I, King of Pamplona.

Sangüesa is located about ten kilometers downstream of a dam that rests on unstable land in movement. In the last months the right slope that supports two urbanizations has moved about twenty centimeters, the movement is produced, as it has always happened, by the delicate action of the hand of the man, and historical tradition on it is not lacking. Since 1930, instabilities have always been triggered by human beings. This time has been no different. At the base of these urbanizations, more than three hundred meters have been excavated to accommodate the new works of regrowth, as always, after this misalignment, the whole slope has decided to move, like an iceberg adrift.

But this time it is more serious, not only because it affects sixty families, the thrust also acts on the same dam that previously embraced, protected, and after this winter the swamp overflows and has not yet begun to thaw. Historically the movements are aborted by removing weight from the upper part, and this has been done, relieving the upper parts means slowing down the slide. This time, as has been done since the 1960s, this temporary solution has worked, but it is temporary.

Indeed, we have a problem. Although unforeseen events are normal in civil works, and that is what we humans are there for, to correct them, this time the removal of so much weight, first to remove it and then to relieve it, may have caused an elastic rebound of the much manipulated right slope. That is to say, the mountain, being relieved of so much weight, rises and with it rises everything it supports, among other things part of the dam itself. A lifting of almost a centimeter and a half has been detected in that area, which is surely the worst thing; better is nothing of course, better would be if everything moved equally. All these data are of public character and are collected in the latest reports of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebro (CHE). That, should have been known statement to every citizen of Sangüesa since it was known.

However, alarm has been raised in Sangüesa not by the knowledge of these disturbing data, but by the appearance of a geologist in the Aragonese Parliament, Antonio Casas, who has described them as "dramatic" and it has been the media who have underlined it. However, what is really dramatic is that in Spain after Lorca, Loma de Úbeda, Tous, Sanabria, Biescas, El Carmel..., we have not learned to manage socially the crises and threats like the one that today can fly over the city of Sancho. The institutional withdrawal blush again, citizens should know that human beings at this point in history are very capable of changing the environment and we must learn to live with it. But nobody has told this to the people of Sangués. Culture and pedagogy no longer have a place in the great works of infrastructure, it has been forgotten there.

And yes, the work is pedagogical and cultural, as important or more important than geology or engineering, not doing so always leads to confusion and damage avoidable only with the flow of communication, misinformation is the breeding ground for suspicions, conspiracies, unfounded alarms, urban legends .... The system is much more than a single unstable piece, because the Yesa dam is just that: a piece of the system. Instability and risk are real, but they are not only geological, they are also social, institutional and personal. The price of apartments has dropped, anxiolytics are disappearing from pharmacies.... Nobody has given a talk about how and how much the environment where the city of Sancho Garcés is settled has changed, and it is a lot. The amnesia, passivity, idleness of our institutions once again highlight the way we manage threats and disasters. Now in Lorca, Tous, Biescas or Sanabria, talks are given and drills are carried out, but we always have to wait for a disaster to start them.

Disinformation is rampant under the passive gaze of the scientists and technicians involved. The natural and social landscape has changed, but the mentality has not. Unable to seduce, to communicate, to lend a hand, the technicians and leaders who have been able to unleash such a threat do not communicate their concerns, not even the risk (with surname) which is real. It may be the l'Aquila syndrome, but acting in this way is cruel, a cruelty of passivity that does not justify any professional success. Now once again the blame is put on the messenger, on the one who with all good will has translated those documents to Roman Paladino, the geologist Antonio Casas who only read aloud the official reports. We will never change.