The ravines of Benidorm, ready to face the season of ‘cold drop’

The ravines of Benidorm are ready to face a possible episode of ‘cold drop’, at least in the urban sections of them - of municipal competition -, as reported today by the Councilor for Urban Space, José Ramón González de Zárate. The councillor has indicated that "throughout the year we are cleaning the urban section of the ravines of Benidorm especially in regard to the removal of belongings and debris"; a task that "intensifies now with the elimination of weeds and green waste."

De Zárate has clarified that the cleaning of the urban section of the ravines, which is the responsibility of the City Council, is in charge of the water concessionaire, Hidraqua, with timely support from the cleaning company, Building and Contract Promotion, and services municipal technicians. These tasks are coordinated with the Department of Environment directed by Mónica Gómez.

For the removal of weeds and green waste, a planning has been arranged that “began yesterday in the Barceló ravine” and that will arrive during the next three or four weeks “to all the ravines of the city”: Derramador, Aigüera, Foietes, Xixo, Murtal and Rajarell.

The head of Urban Space has indicated that "while the City Council acts year-round in the ravines, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation does not do the same, which is responsible for keeping the non-urban sections clean." Hence, it has been required in writing to comply with this obligation in view of the arrival of the time of torrential rains. Meanwhile, the City Council has proceeded to remove debris and equipment located in the banks.

Tank ‘anti-pollution’ on Mediterranean Avenue

Although the ravines of the city are ready, De Zárate has explained that a possible ‘cold drop’ in the next 20 days could cause problems at a very specific point: Gerona street and the area closest to Doctor Orts Llorca avenue. The reason is the construction of the ‘anti-pollution’ tank with functionality as ‘anti-storm’ included in Mediterráneo Avenue remodeling project, which has already begun to be implemented.

The mayor has assured that "it is possibly the most complex engineering work being carried out at the moment in Spain", as well as "the first tank" of these characteristics, with the capacity to collect up to 615 cubic meters of water that are sent to the purification network avoiding their arrival at the beach. According to De Zárate, “this action has not been possible beforehand due to the evolution of the remodeling work itself”, although it is estimated that it will be completed in an approximate period of “between 15 and 20 days”.

To be able to run this tank, 8 meters deep by 24 long, it has been necessary to “cut the Orts Llorca collector”, so torrential heavy rains could cause an overflow of water in this avenue and in the section closest to Gerona. Where appropriate, the City Council has a traffic device and technical services.

De Zárate stressed that "once the tank is finished, the usual episodes of floods in all that Mediterranean area will have been eliminated", and advanced that "this legislature will be solved the channeling of all the ravines of Benidorm" since Rajarell ravine is being acted and is also being planned to do so in Murtal ravine.