Implementation of the new strategy of deconstructing part of the promenades, renaturalizing the coastal strip and returning space to the beach to minimize the damage caused by maritime storms, which are increasingly frequent and devastating due to the climate crisis. Excavators started yesterday to demolish part of the Plaça del Mil·lenari in Segur de Calafell (Baix Penedès), built at the beginning of this century (2002) on the sand of the beach to connect two sections of the promenade.
Sea storms, which are increasing because of the climate emergency, have put a square at risk of collapse that, with current knowledge, should not have been built. The rigid structure, designed as a viewpoint over the beach, ate up part of the beach and has favored its erosion. The deconstruction is an emergency action promoted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition in agreement with Calafell City Council.
The removal of part of the promenade will help the beach of Mas Mel, weakened by the force of the sea and the urbanization of the coast, recover part of the sand and gain width. The beach has lost close to a hundred meters over the last three decades in the coastal strip of Segur de Calafell most affected precisely by the regression.
"What really protects the infrastructure is the beach, it is a much more efficient defense than not having it, it is also a way to protect the houses, to have an ecosystem in good condition such as the beach", highlights Aron Marcos, Councilor for Urban Ecology. The part of Plaça del Mil·lenari that will be demolished occupied an area of 800 square meters out of a total of 8,000 m2.
What has begun to be done in Calafell is part of a global strategy with actions promoted by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition on the Costa Daurada together with the affected municipalities. The same ministry has already warned that it will not spend more money or public resources to repair sea promenades, built in the maritime public domain, damaged by storms.
On the Pineda beach, Vila-seca (Tarragonès) will be the next municipality to remove part of the promenade, so that the sandy area gains more width. The renaturation in this case is more profound, with a 20-metre retreat of the urbanized strip on the coast and an investment of ten million euros paid with European funds. An area of dunes and vegetation will serve to cushion storms.
Nor will it be the last act of deconstruction on the coastal front of Segur de Calafell, with four kilometers of beaches, to adapt to the new scenario that has arisen with the climate emergency. In no case is the elimination of the entire promenade on the table, says the councilor for Urban Ecology, but it will "be redesigned so that the beach is more resilient; we want to think 50 years from now in the context of a climate change scenario to which we must adapt".
For now, he prefers not to specify any of the new actions proposed, out of caution. Dialogue with neighbors will also be encouraged. "People would rather have more beach than promenade", says the councilor. A philosophy that has little or nothing to do with that of the 1980s and 1990s, when many of the seaside promenades on the Catalan coast were promoted, as is the case of the Costa Daurada. Urbanization was then synonymous with modernity and tourist attraction.
In one month of works, with a public expenditure of 80,000 euros paid by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, part of the cement of Plaça del Mil·lenari will have disappeared, so that part of its natural space will be returned to the beach. The sea has been eroding the foundations of the square in recent years and it was only a matter of time before part of its structure gave way, probably after a great sea storm.
Nothing to do with the scenario of the early nineties, when it was necessary to walk a hundred meters, sand inside, to reach the sea. The beach was reinforced with a large contribution of sand in 1992, land that the Mediterranean and expansive urban planning have almost eaten away. Beneath the tiles that started to be removed yesterday, there is a beach.
