According to ASAJA Alicante, the Guardamar del Segura breakwater acts as a “plug” for the silt carried by the river, restricting natural access to the sea during torrential rains. This would raise the possibility of severe floods along the riverbed, causing human, material, and agricultural damage in the towns that comprise the Vega Baja Plain.
The group seeks a structural solution to ensure the safety of the Vega Baja region, including San Fulgencio, Dolores, AlmoradÃ, Rojales, and Guardamar, in the event of sudden inclement weather, such as the DANA in 2019 or Valencia in 2024.
Although dredging of the final stretch of the old Segura River channel is set to begin in October, removing tonnes of sludge and reorienting the aforementioned breakwater would not solve the problem of evacuation during heavy rainfall, as sediment accumulates at the mouth, increasing the risk of overflowing and flooding throughout the channel.
ASAJA Alicante questions why construction was not suspended despite previous CEDEX reports stating that the channelling dikes at the current estuary provide a considerable impediment to the free flow of the longitudinal solid current, including one from 1987. This document should have been adequate to establish that the current breakwater would exacerbate the problem, particularly if it was expanded to 500 meters.
Ultimately, and despite various unfavourable technical documents, the breakwater was erected between 1990 and 1994 with an orientation opposite that of the rest of Spain’s Mediterranean.
Given the significant agricultural damage that this poor decision could cause, ASAJA Alicante believes it is critical that the Spanish Government, through its competent body, correct the curvature of the southern breakwater, which currently prevents natural deflection, in order to facilitate the natural connection from the north in the event of a storm.
The old channel is in terrible condition
“Farmers in the Vega Baja region are living in perpetual worry as a result of the 2019 DANA (Dana Flood), which caused many to lose everything. The political inactivity is concerning, especially given what occurred just a few months ago in Valencia, where the significance of action on ravines and water-regulating infrastructure was stressed.”
For this reason, ASAJA Alicante insists on a definitive and structural solution, and takes the opportunity to denounce the terrible state of the old channel, invaded by mud and invasive reeds’, which according to the president of the association, José Vicente Andreu, during the DANA of 2019 grew to more than a metre due to being obstructed by a lack of dredging and cleaning due to the dragging of waste and sediment from the irrigation network, which also functions as a flood evacuation.
Author: Derek Appleton
Other Articles
No Comment! Be the first one.