The landslip next to the A-7 near the Castell de Ferro might have only temporarily inconvenienced traffic but it has done lasting damage to farmers.

There are about 150 families, farming under plastic mostly, below Lújar and above Castell de Ferro, who now don’t have an access lane to their land. Naturally, they’re very worried about the crop they have on the way, which they won’t be able to get out.

But there’s more because it’s not only the access lane that has been been seriously damaged, but also water tanks that have cracks in them too.

“The road has a big step in it and we have no way of getting our crops out. The tractors and machinery that we need are too heavy for the road in its present state,” explained one of the farmers, whose greenhouse was split down the middle by the landslip.

Their insurance policies will probably sort out the broken pipes and cracked water tanks but what is worrying them more than anything is that they fully expect the hillside to shift again – it has had a tendency to do that… ever since the A-7 was carved out below them.

And that’s the problem, they feel; when the hillside was dug into for the autovía, it wasn’t secured properly. They are praying that this latest repair work on the autovia will remedy this.

The Mayor of Lújar, Manuel Mariano González, has already been onto the relevant authority to get them to survey the affected land and to carry out emergency work to pin it. The trouble is that we’re in the middle of a health crisis and subsequent Lock Down, so such a project is probably not on the front burners as far as the Ministry of Public Works (Fomento) is concerned.

(News: Castell de Ferro, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)