No 982 Monday 31st July - Sunday 6th August 2023
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Now in our 20th year of keeping people safe and informed - The Costa Blanca’s oldest ‘FREE’ English language newspaper
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A U T H O R I T I E S FA I L T O C L E A R S E G U R A RIVERBED DESPITE THE RISK OF DANA
his coming week we will enter the month of August and despite promise after promise by the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS), many stretches of the Rio Segura are still completely overgrown with reeds and vegetation which, in the event of a DANA repeat, will surely bring the Vega Baja to it’s knees as it did previously in September 2019.
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On that occasion the episode of the Isolated Depression at High Levels (DANA), better known as cold drop, completely devastated the south of Alicante and the Region of Murcia and was considered to be the natural disaster with the highest economic cost in the recent history of Spain. Costing 1,319 million euros it is something that we cannot contemplate happening again. But the images provided by @inf_vegabaja tell their own story. They are repeated time and again, especially in the stretch of the river between Orihuela and Rojales, in Molins, Jacarilla, Benejúzar, Algorfa, Almoradí, Formentera del Segura, Benijófar, upstream of Rojales, and to a lesser extent, upstream of the town of Orihuela and at the mouth of Guardamar where the CHS has at least taken some action in recent months. As many residents of the Vega Baja look out on the banks of the Segura, all they can see is a thick blanket of reeds that covers the riverbed. Just a thread of turbid water recycled from the treatment plants and mixed with the contribution of the azarbes, the ditches that channel the excess water from the irrigation systems, of the traditional garden can be seen between the impenetrable wall of Arundo donax, a tall perennial cane, and an invasive plant species that is very difficult to eradicate.
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