Benidorm awards its Corporate Medal to Rafael Ferrer Meliá, the ‘water mayor’

Benidorm City Council will award the city's Corporate Medal to Rafael Ferrer Meliá, known locally as the "Water Mayor," who "had to confront the most serious water crisis in the city's 20th-century history and resolve it, thus initiating the Integrated Water Cycle Management process that, after years of effort, has made us a model of water management."

This is stated in the unanimous proposal of the Board of Spokespersons, approved today in the Information Committee, which emphasizes "his dedication and commitment to Benidorm," qualities that were clearly evident "during those difficult days of 1978," when "the most important and significant thing was the unity of everyone in managing the situation and collectively demanding a solution, which initially emerged from the solidarity of the people of Beniardá."

The proposal also emphasises that Ferrer Meliá “led the city during two key and decisive moments in the recent history of our country and of Benidorm: the constitutional referendum of December 6, 1978, and the holding of the first municipal elections of the democratic era, on April 3, 1979.”

Born in 1941, he grew up on Calle Mayor and, just after turning 13, began working as an office boy at the Canal Bajo del Algar. From his entry into the City Council in January 1974, “he clearly demonstrated his dedication to public service and total commitment to the people of Benidorm,” which has always been remembered by the citizens.”

Between March and April 1978, following the resignation of the previous mayor and “amidst a highly complex situation of drought and supply problems” that had already begun in the summer of 1976, Ferrer Meliá took a “step forward” and “assumed the responsibility of a mayoral term with an expiration date,” since the first democratic municipal elections were scheduled for April 1979.

As noted in the proposal, “in the three hundred and seventy-seven days of his term as mayor, he had to confront the so-called ‘Water Crisis’ and plan a significant number of projects that were implemented in subsequent years by his successors”; projects that “were recorded in the Municipal Minutes in March 1978.”

The last mayor of the pre-democratic era called for a “direct consultation with the citizens for the election of their representatives” and actively worked to resolve issues in various departments, including beaches, street cleaning, education (high school, primary schools, and daycare), the fire station, the road network, and the wastewater treatment plant. He also demonstrated a strong commitment to cooperation and shared responsibility with the region.

After his term as mayor ended, following the first municipal elections, Rafael Ferrer Meliá quietly withdrew from municipal politics and has always remained an active citizen, consistently stating, as the proposal adds, that “his greatest satisfaction is that since then, thanks to the efforts of so many, Benidorm has not suffered from water shortages.”

The presentation of the Corporate Medal to Rafael Ferrer Meliá will take place on December 6th during the official ceremony organised by Benidorm City Council to commemorate Constitution Day.