XX century – The revival of the salt industry
The revival of the salt industry
The immediate effect of the liberalisation of the salt market once the Monopoly had come to an end was the heavy competition in the markets, in which production and transport costs played a key role.
The coastal salt marshes and the salt mines soon took over the markets by installing railway lines and with their low production costs. The Añana salt workers reacted by trying to reduce costs. This led to the introduction of new materials, such as cement, that no longer required the permanent maintenance that had been performed traditionally.
This broke one of the basic principles of the process: the use of reusable materials, which had been the basis for the survival of Valle Salado for millennia. There was also an increase in the number of salt-pans, which now occupied a total area that largely exceeded the limit of sustainability. As expected, once the know-how of the salt workers and the maintenance tasks were abandoned, the situation and state of the valley began to deteriorate.
However, Valle Salado stands out for its resilience, its ability to absorb negative impacts, to change, introduce innovations and recover its existence based on knowledge, traditions and respect for ecology.
Proof of this is that, in the late twentieth century, a complicated project was launched headed by the Valle Salado de Añana Foundation, that integrated the Community of Heirs of the salt works and the most important institutions in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.
This non-profit institution is now in charge of recovering and enhancing Valle Salado, looking back to the past and recovering the basic principles that have governed its history over millennia. Today there is still work to be done, but Valle Salado can, once again, look to the future.
