After seeing what happened, further down the coast in Calahonda, the Motril Town Hall is eyeing nervously three of its own ramblas that have not been cleared of choking vegetation.

It is worth pointing out precisely what a ‘rambla’ is, apart from being a main pedestrian thoroughfare in Barcelona, that is. A rambla is a water course that is dry most of the year but runs during heavy rainfall. The English description would be storm watercourse or even the North-African word, wadi. Incidentally, the name of certain rivers in Southern Spain start with Guadal (a good example is Guadalfeo), which stems back from the Andalusi period of our history.

Anyway; on with the plot… Two Motril ramblas: Los Álamos and Las Brujas, as well as El Rejón in Carchuna are overgrown. The rambla that runs down the side of Al Campo (Las Brujas) is a sunken jungle in parts and when it does flow at full spate, even if all the water stays within its bank, will end up on the beach.

Attention to the problem was drawn back in September – as reported in the Seaside Gazette – but the first response from the regional authorities was that there was no money available. They later announced that they had found 156,000 euros for clearing the ramblas, but after clearing from kilometro diez down, they stopped before completing the task, packed up, and left. When asked why, they responded that not all the budget had been forwarded and that what had been allocated had already been used up.

In conclusion, we now live in the era of austerity so prevention work is being cut back, yet prevention is always cheaper than clearing up the mess afterwards, without even going into the risk of fatalities and injuries.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)