Thousands of euro has been spent on digging trenches in many parts of
Torrevieja to contain the flood water. But still, on Saturday 15 th September,
many streets across the town became impassable and damage was done to
property and transport.
One litre of water per square metre of ground fell every second, totalling 30 in
half an hour. Between 7.30am and 8am 31.2 litres per square metre had been
recorded. Not surprisingly it did not take long for the canals running parallel to
the natural lakes to be full.
From the avenida de las Cortes Valencianas up to the avenida de Delfina
Viudes, the roads were impassable and traffic at a stand still. For more than
20 minutes the water continued to flood this area around the N332 and as far
as access to the Ozone commercial centre and Carrefour. The Guardia Civil
had to rescue five drivers from their cars.
However, this is not a new situation and public money has been spent to try
and remedy the problem. Why did it not work? Canals and ditches have been
constructed to take excess water since 2014. Had they not been constructed
then the flooding would have been far worse. However, there are also those
who argue that some of the measures taken have, in fact, just moved the
problem elsewhere.
There are still more proposals on the table for how to alleviate the town’s
flooding problems. A channel running parallel to the N332 down to the sea, is
one suggestion. It’s not just nature, however, that we can blame for the state
of flooding in Torrevieja.
The fact remains that the huge amount of residential building in and around
the town over a period of four decades is also responsible for the problems
we encounter now. Previously there was more soil to absorb the rain water.
Following the boom in house building this was replaced by large amounts of
asphalt. In the rush to build, little thought was given to the problems this would
cause for those buying here.