Returning to the subject of land movement, we come to the Marina del Este… Rains at the end of last year and the beginning of this one have had a negative effect on the stability of the terrain – which is hardly surprising, is it?

A report carried out by the consulting company, Ayesa was duly handed over to the Town Hall and the leaseholders for the marina by the Agencia Pública de Puertos de Andalucía (APPA) on the 4th of February.

The hillside on which sits most of the housing above the marina is on the move, simply put, and it doesn’t look as if it will be taking a break in the near future. The report says that the measure put forward by the Town Hall should be put into practice without delay – everybody agrees, but who’s going to pay for it is the problem.

The report cites the terrain movement readings between the 9th and 28th of December, which gave an estimate of three millimetres per month, but the problem is the readings between the 28th of December and the 17th of January, which give… 9,75mm per month – three times faster. Ayesa takes its readings from four inclinometers that have been installed in different parts of the hillside.

Ayesa has requested the readings from the five inclinometers that the Town Hall has installed there so that they can be compared – this is to establish if the movement is confined to the area near the residence for the elderly or is more generalised.

On the other hand, the four inclinometers installed by the APPA (regional port authorities) at the base of the hillside show there has been no movement worth noting.

Finally, work that was approved by the Junta to stabilise the hillside next to the port – as opposed to above it – continues, as does the work in the galleries (caves). The Town Hall and the Junta agree that a failure to continue with the maintenance of the draining of the caves was part of the problem. The galleries were originally dug during the building of the Marina de Este to drain of subterranean water. The piles that anchor the hillside (in a fan form) were damaged by later construction work so this, combined with the lack of maintenance of the galleries has given rise to the earth movements, as denounced by the residents of the housing above the Marina.