The Sadar River is a tributary of the Elorz River, which rises in the Aranguren and Tajonar mountain ranges, running in a westerly direction, between the Eocene

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

s of the Cuenca de Pamplona. It is 19 km long and drains a basin of some 70 km². The average rainfall it receives, 700 mm, gives it an estimated annual flow of 12 hm³. The Zolina reservoir, a former artificial

leachate A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences wher ...

deposit from the disappeared potash mines, belongs to the Sadar basin, although, due to the concentration of salts, its waters and sludge are kept confined within its containment dike. Although of artificial origin, the reservoir is being colonised by species typical of

halophilic The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, ...

environments, which make it of environmental interest. The Góngora Waste Treatment Centre also belongs to the Sadar basin. In this case, its waters have been channelled and are taken directly to the Arazuri

treatment plant Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, includ ...

. The Sadar is a small river, with a low flow, which is very well embedded in the terrain and hardly presents any flooding problems. Its course, including its banks, has an average width of some 6–8 metres. In Pamplona, where it runs for approximately 3.7 km, it crosses the campuses of the

Public University of Navarre The Public University of Navarre ( eu, Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa; es, Universidad Pública de Navarra) is a public university created in 1987 by the government of the Spanish autonomous region of Navarre ( es, Navarra, Basque: ''Nafarro ...

and the University of Navarre and flows into the River Elorz.

Projects of interest

The Sadar River is one of the watercourses integrated within the Pamplona River Park. It is popularly known as the ''River in reverse'', perhaps because it carries more water at the beginning than at the end, or perhaps because it flows in an east–west direction, which is the opposite of what is usual in the rest of the rivers in the

Mediterranean Basin In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...

. This river has also been the target of projects such as "''Sadar Conecta''" or "Equilibrium, preservation and conservation of the natural environment of the Pamplona campus" ("''Equilibrio, preservación y conservación del entorno natural del campus de Pamplona''"), in which various organisations have participated with the aim of preserving the nature around the river. In 2019, the

carried out a project to preserve the environment of this river, installing information panels on the fauna and flora that surrounds it as it passes through the Arrosadía university campus in Pamplona, as well as carrying out a clean-up of the river banks.

References

External links

* {{Cite web , title=En pamplona.es Río Sadar , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221004136/http://www.pamplona.es/parquefluvial/es/rios_elorz_sadar/rio_sadar.asp , language=es Ebro basin Rivers of Navarre