Storms Aline, Bernard and Ciaran have taken their toll on numerous beaches in the form of loss of sand or barefoot walks. In Barcelona, work began yesterday to repair the wall of the Nova Mar Bella promenade that gave way due to the impact of waves of more than three meters and gusts of wind of 70 km/h and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area has accelerated the dismantling of the walls. coastal equipment to avoid further damage. In other municipalities such as Badalona, Pineda de Mar or Altafulla, the problems on the beach have jumped into the political arena.
In Badalona, the Gregal storm has had a double effect: On the one hand, it has engulfed a large part of the Coco beach, causing a drop of up to three meters in height, but on the other, it has filled the Barca Maria beach with sand, one of the most punished by the usual Levante storms. From the council, councilor David Mejía describes the Ministry's passivity as “incomprehensible” and demands solutions: “Otherwise we would be facing clear evidence of omission for political reasons.”
In this sense, the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, has addressed the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, to whom he has warned that the regression already affects all the city's beaches and that it is beginning to barefoot part of the promenade. At the end of September they notified the incident to the General Directorate of Coastal Demarcation in Barcelona “but unfortunately we did not obtain a satisfactory response.”
In Maresme, the central beach of Pineda de Mar has once again run out of sand and some structures that had been buried for years and that belonged to the old Civil Guard Barracks House have appeared. The mayor, Xavier Amor, also demands urgent action. On the other hand, the works on the Premià de Mar beach consolidation project have also been affected; The storm has destroyed the road that took the trucks to build the planned breakwaters.
On the Costa Daurada, in addition to towns such as Cambrils, Roda de Barà or Tarragona, the storm has once again hit the Altafulla seafront, where the problem has turned into a political conflict for years. At the end of the previous term, a motion of no confidence that sent the current mayor to the opposition was justified above all by the alleged inaction regarding the effects of the climate emergency on the seafront. In this latest storm, the City Council has tried to stop the effects by filling a section of the promenade with rocks. “During the electoral campaign, 20,000 m3 of sand were poured that were supposed to last two years and have lasted five months,” laments the new mayor Jordi Molinera (L’Eina-ERC), who was the subject of the motion of censure. A UPC study, in the preparation phase, will determine how to act structurally.
