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The receding Malaga coastline in the Guadalmar area (Churriana) is an increasingly palpable fact, as verified by Spain's Directorate-General for Coasts authority (Costas). It is the result of, among other things beside the dynamics of the shifting coastline and urban development, an increasingly regulated Guadalhorce river as that now brings less sediment to the coast. This issue affects not only the flooding of the urban landscape there (homes and businesses), but also its basic infrastructure. This is the case with the water network, in particular the pumping and drainage systems. Malaga's municipal water company, Emasa, is therefore obliged to undertake a multimillion-euro project to rebuild the entire network of pipes and circulation of wastewater before it is sent to the nearby Guadalhorce wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The contract for the first phase has just been put out to tender for almost five million euros.
The Guadalmar pumping station (EBAR) is located literally on the breakwater to Arraijanal beach and, consequently, is at serious risk of rupture and spillage of the residual contents. This factor plus the urban developments planned for the area are the reason for this multimillion investment in the Churriana district of Malaga. At present, all the wastewater for this area is collected at the station.
These facilities, which are under threat from the encroaching sea, need to be replaced and the wastewater treatment workload needs to be spread over three WWTPs: the new Moby Dick, San Julián and Pascal. The golf course will be remodelled as part of these improvements and fixes. There are three stages to this work with a total timeframe of 18 months.
Because of the aforementioned receding coastline, according to the specifications in the tender document, the Guadalmar pumping station must be dismantled. However, it alone handles all the wastewater generated on the right-hand side of the Guadalhorce for pumping to the Guadalhorce treatment plant.
In the technical document it is noted that, due to the urbanistic limitations of the surroundings and the current configuration of the sewerage networks, it is necessary to remodel the current EBAR Campo de Golf and build several pumping stations for the system so that the wastewater from each of these stations can be pumped directly to the treatment plant without the need to concentrate them in a single unit, as happens now at Guadalmar - with all the eggs in the one basket.
Emasa, in keeping with the terms of its ongoing investment plan, has already processed the funding necessary to undertake this complex project, which not only includes pumping stations and water-collectors but also, for example, the supporting electrical systems.
It is worth remembering that this summer studies carried out by Tragsatec for Costas were published, warning of the excessive erosion of the coastal strip in Guadalmar up to 2070. In 15 years' time the sea is expected to be at the edge of the houses and the hotel. The tidal waters would flood the southernmost houses within 46 years. It can also be seen that the level of possible flooding due to storms is also advancing significantly.
In the case of Guadalmar, this loss of beach area has been particularly significant since 2016, despite the contributions of sand added in recent years to prevent the loss of coastal land both on the beach and in the area where the pumping station exists. "In 2019 around 6,000 cubic metres of sand were brought to the area and in 2020 it was up to 16,000 cubic metres, not being sufficient to prevent the beach from shrinking back, but reducing its rate of regression in the central transects [stretches]," states the study.
This analysis shows that the urban transformation of Guadalmar was clearly seen right from 1963 to 1977 when this urban land was developed and structures were created to protect and enlarge the beach next to the plots on which the houses were then built. In the 1990s the work undertaken at the mouth of the Guadalhorce also affected the coastal dynamics of this area, although the disappearance of the coastline was halted for a while. Since 2006, however, there has been an "explosive" change in which the coastline has continued to recede despite piling in the lorryloads of sand, with the erosion most noticeable after storms.
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