Malaga flood prevention: final work to stabilise left Guadalhorce bank takes shape

Malaga councillor for environmental sustainability Penélope Gómez has presented the flood control project that involves the most sensitive area in the city: the left bank of the Guadalhorce river.

The aim is to reduce flood risk for industrial areas, improve water quality and build a large floodable riverside park that would also serve as a recreational area.

The left bank of the Guadalhorce represents a significant portion of the city: 15 per cent of the urban area. The work there would also include reorganising stormwater runoff and tributaries, which are currently at low levels and accumulate sediment.

At the same time, the city council has completed the project to upgrade the Azucarera bridge over the MA-21. The Ministry of Ecological Transition is finalising the project to widen it and allow more water to pass through.

Gómez's objective is for local and state projects to increase flood protection. In a first estimate, all these actions would cost some 46 million euros. The idea is to negotiate state funding as these tasks are part of previous river channelling projects.

The third responsible body - the regional government - has already carried out work worth seven million euros in the final stretch of the river. According to Gómez, these tasks have proved to be effective during the last storms.

Other historical demands for the regulation of the river include the Guadalhorce dams (the three supply dams, which eventually converge in the Tajo de la Encantada dam, for electricity generation); the Grande river tributary, with the project of the Cerro Blanco dam; the Casasola dam on the Campanillas tributary.