Benidorm asks the CHJ to be able to clean the riverbeds of ravines located on non-urban land within the municipal area

The Local Government Board of Benidorm City Council has approved the request to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) to be able to carry out the cleaning and maintenance of the sections of the riverbed of ravines, gullies and torrents that are located on non-urban land within the municipal area of ​​Benidorm. The City Council considers that the cleaning of these spaces is “fundamental to maintain the adequate service conditions of the same and that, in cases of flooding, they can drain properly and that there are no retentions that lead to flooding with damage to infrastructure, services, private property and even people” explained the councillor for the Water Cycle, José Ramón González de Zárate.

The request from the council is made even though the cleaning and adaptation of these sections is the direct responsibility of the CHJ, as established in Royal Decree 984/1989 which attributes to the Water Commissions “the execution of works for the mere conservation of public riverbeds”. However, despite having this competence, the CHJ makes these maintenance actions subject to “its budget availability”.

Given this situation, the councillor has pointed out that “we cannot wait to see whether or not the CHJ has the money to undertake these actions and, therefore, we cannot trust the elimination of the risks that Benidorm may suffer to the correct efficiency of the Confederation, which is very conditioned by budget availability”.

For this reason, González de Zárate continued, the City Council has raised the option of “partially and/or temporarily assuming said competence” and proceeding to the cleaning of the sections of the ravines located on non-urban land in the municipal area.

The councillor, in this regard, has recalled that last year (August 30) and this year (August 13) the City Council asked the CHJ to act in the natural channels to avoid damage that could be caused by extreme meteorological phenomena. “On both occasions, we have received a negative response” revealed González de Zárate, who specified that in the same response, the body admitted that it is within its competence “but that it was subject to the availability of the budget”.

The CHJ even contemplates the possibility of establishing joint action programmes between the City Council and the Confederation, but always subject to them having a budget. “We cannot wait for them to allocate money to act on our ravines” stated the councillor. The technical reports indicate that “the budgetary possibilities of the CHJ and other prevailing criteria” mean that “the operational nature of the planning for action on the channels of Benidorm cannot be taken into account with a minimum of security”.
The same reports indicate that the guarantee of no impact on Benidorm due to the conservation of natural channels on non-urban land “can only be offered if it is the City Council assumes that responsibility, after the corresponding authorisations”. At this point, the technicians emphasise that the nature of the work to be carried out “is similar to that which the municipal service has been carrying out for the sections of natural channels close to the channelled ones”.

On the other hand, the Council has also asked the company in charge of the Water and Sewerage service, Hidraqua, to draft a Cleaning and Maintenance Plan for Public Channels detailing the schedule of the work to be carried out, its scope, techniques… following the recommendations issued by the CHJ and, in the case of having the authorisation to act on the ravines on non-urban land, to incorporate said works into the requested plan.

In addition, Hidraqua has been asked to carry out “extraordinarily and urgently” the cleaning and maintenance of the sections of ravines within the urban land of Benidorm and the Thematic Projects Society of the Valencian Community (SPTCV) have also been asked “to take on and carry out the cleaning and maintenance work on channels within the land of the PEDUI Terra Mítica”.