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ARCHIVED - Filtration wells and permeable road surfaces to convert Playa Honda and El Carmolí into urban sponges
A series of infrastructures are projected along the coast of the Mar Menor to reduce future flood damage
A little over 18 months after the heaviest DANA storm to hit the Region of Murcia in half a century brought devastating flooding to the Campo de Cartagena and towns along the inland shore of the Mar Menor, a study compiled by experts at the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT) has recommended a series of measures to mitigate the effects of similar weather events in the future including infiltration wells, floodable park areas and permeable road surfaces, and the first such infrastructures are to be created in El Carmolí and Playa Honda in the municipality of Cartagena.
The UPCT study was commissioned by the regional government of Murcia after a series of extreme weather events in September and December 2019 and early in 2020, and once the first construction projects are completed in El Carmolí and Playa Honda others are planned in San Pedro del Pinatar, San Javier, Los Alcázares, Los Urrutias and Los Nietos. Ultimately the aim is to convert the built-up areas along the coast of the Mar Menor into a drainage network - a kind of “urban sponge”, in the words of José Ramón Díez de Revenga, the minister for Infrastructures in the regional government - capable of absorbing and filtering floodwater rather than allowing it to cascade directly into the lagoon, which has been the consequence of various cloudbursts in recent years.
One of the ideas presented in the UPCT study is to plant vegetation in public parks and gardens and to incorporate tanks, or sinks, where floodwater would be stored for future use in watering and irrigation during the hot, dry months of the summer. The installation of permeable road surfaces is another important initiative, but above all the measures envisage the creation of numerous water collection tanks in green zones, car parks and roundabouts, possibly equipped with filtering equipment to eliminate harmful substances accumulating in the water.
The impurities extracted would be filtered out and the “clean” water could then be distributed for re-use, helping to alleviate the almost permanent shortage of water in the Region of Murcia.
The scale of the project means that inevitably it will have to be implemented in the medium to long term rather than immediately, and as such it will be necessary to bear the measures in mind when drawing up the new urban development plans in Cartagena and the other municipalities affected.