ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 23rd November 2018
Heavy rain and widespread flooding in the Costa Cálida, and a Ryanair scare for passengers booked on flights at Corvera airport!
The news in Murcia this week has been dominated by the heavy rain which caused widespread flooding on Sunday and Monday, and by the subsequent demands for long-term solutions to the problems which arise in the area of the Mar Menor every time the weather brings storm of this kind to the Costa Cálida.
As thousands enjoyed their sardine barbecues at the annual Romería in Bolnuevo on Sunday afternoon they probably kept one eye on the sky, and sure enough during the night as much as 80 millimetres of rain fell in just a few hours in some parts of the Region. That might be far less than in other storms along the Mediterranean coast this autumn, but it was enough to cause chaos on the roads and severe flooding in the town of Los Alcázares, on the shore of the Mar Menor.
60 residents were evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure close to the floodwater channel of the Rambla del Albujón, and with locals recalling the disastrous flooding of December 2016 classes were cancelled at all schools in the municipality (as was also the case in San Javier, Torre Pacheco, Fuente-Álamo, San Pedro del Pinatar and parts of Cartagena).
The motorway between the Mar Menor and the regional capital was again among the roads closed due to flooding, as were numerous streets in Mazarrón and the main road leading to Isla Plana, while Torre Pacheco was practically cut off as water covered large parts of the Campo de Cartagena. Three drivers had to be rescued from their vehicles as flooding also hit Águilas, and there was even more drama in Cartagena, where 70 children were rescued from a school bus trapped in floodwater on the Camino del Sifón, again in the Campo de Cartagena.
By Tuesday the floodwater had receded in most areas and while the clean-up began the inquests also got under way into why Los Alcázares has become so prone to flooding, and who is to blame. The main culprits, it is generally agreed, are unwise and excessive urban development and reckless alteration of the natural drainage in the Campo de Cartagena by crop farmers over the last few decades: in other words, the same factors, in broad terms, which contributed most to the algal bloom in the marine environment of the Mar Menor.
This is illustrated by some fantastic aerial photos provided by the pilots of the AGA academy and shared by the Town Hall of San Javier, showing how soil and mud from the crop fields (doubtless containing fertilizers) run down unimpeded into Los Alcázares and other coastal areas before cutting channels in the beaches and flowing into the Mar Menor.
In the aftermath of the flooding it is estimated that the episode will cost Murcia farmers at least a million euros in lost revenue, as although salad crops are well-watered and healthy, they are also drenched in mud rendering them unsaleable, while elsewhere expense is also being incurred in the clean-up of reeds and canes which were washed down the Rambla del Albujón: some of them reached beaches in La Manga, on the other side of the Mar Menor, much to the disgust of residents!
At the same time, the regional government is attempting to speed up floodwater tank construction along the Mar Menor coast by altering the law, but it is too late to placate the residents of Los Alcázares: a protest is being held in the town centre on Saturday, and another organized by the Town Hall will take place in the city of Murcia in the near future, complaining what the Mayor refers to as “two years of inactivity” since the catastrophic floods of December 2016.
Tourism news: Ryanair mismanage the transition from San Javier to Corvera on their website!
There was considerable consternation early in the week when all flights to and from the Region of Murcia after 14th January (the date when Murcia-San Javier airport is scheduled to close to civilian flights in order to make way for the opening of the new Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera) abruptly disappeared from the Ryanair website.
Some readers with seats booked on flights to and from Murcia after that date reported receiving messages informing them that their flights had been cancelled, and wringing a comment out of the airline proved frustratingly difficult.
The following day the Ryanair site went down on some browser systems, but eventually 24 hours of confusion, and even doubts over whether the company had decided not to operate at the new airport after all, were ended as flights gradually began re-appearing on the schedules.
Just after 2pm on Tuesday Ryanair finally issued a statement explaining that flights had been re-routed to Corvera, but not a word of apology was given for the messages sent the day before informing passengers that their flights had been cancelled!
Another airlines story made interesting reading as well this week as it was ruled by the Supreme Court that return flight reservations may not be cancelled by airlines if passengers do not board the outbound flight: to reach this decisin the Supreme Court ruled against Iberia on “abusive” booking conditions.
New exhibit added to the open-air urban art museum in Los Alcázares: the Compañía de Mario offer guided tours of the local street art collection every month, and these will now include the latest work of Goyo203.
Medieval synagogue museum added to the attractions at Lorca castle: the synagogue of Lorca was never put to any other use after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and was not discovered until 2003.
80-million-euro investment in more homes at La Manga Club: the British are still in the majority at the prestigious resort but more buyers are coming from Scandinavia and Belgium.
Fewer foreign tourists expected in Spain this year but more economic activity generated: 81 million visitors are expected to spend 90,000 million euros in Spain this year, well over 20 per cent being accounted for by those coming from the UK.
Agricultural and environmental news
To add to the losses in leaf vegetable crops in the Campo de Cartagena there was outrage among both farmers and politicians in Murcia this week, when after the heavy rain at the weekend the Ministry for Ecological Transition announced that this month no water will be transferred to the Segura basin (including the Region of Murcia) for irrigation farming from the headwaters of the Tajo basin by means of the Tajo-Segura “trasvase” canal.
According to the Ministry and the PSOE government, the reason for this change of policy is that the drought in Murcia has eased after the recent rainfall and that the rain has damaged the canals by which water is distributed to farmland in the Campo de Cartagena. But in fact the effect of the recent rain on the reservoirs of the Segura has not been spectacularly positive, and Fernando López Miras, the president of the regional government, says he is not aware of any damage which would jeopardize the transfer for agricultural purposes.
Crop farmers refer to the decision as “humiliating”, and even the regional PSOE MPs have referred to it as “a mistake” and “unjust”, and the controversy is likely to last some time.
Águilas ficus trees being assessed and cut back to guarantee safety: the Town Hall guards against any repeat of the near-disaster in Murcia 18 months ago and calls in the experts.
Seed bombing resumes in Águilas in re-forestation scheme: 25,000 pellets dropped on the Águilas countryside in an effort to re-populate pine and carob groves.
Migration
8 more migrants were detained after reaching the Spanish coast in Cabo de Palos on Sunday morning, but any thoughts that the arrival of less favourable weather conditions might slow the rate at which African migrants are attempting to cross the Mediterranean on small boats to enter EU and Spanish territory without authorization were dispelled on Thursday when the maritime rescue service intercepted or rescued 894 people of sub-Saharan and north African origin on 18 boats off the coast of Andalucía.
Such has been the scale of the migratory flow this year that in many newspapers this was not even considered worthy of making the front page, despite one dramatic rescue from the sea involving a pregnant woman who was at first thought to be dead! At least 14 more are reported to be missing.
These latest arrivals take the total of unauthorized migrants either reaching Spain under their own steam or being intercepted and brought ashore this year to close to 49,000, a new record and an increase of over 250 per cent on the 2017 figure, and it seems possible that the Spanish government’s estimate that the total could reach 58,000 by the end of the year may be short of the mark.
Other items in the Murcia news
5,000-year-old petroglyphs found on Santomera hilltop: the mysterious Copper Age markings are aligned with the winter solstice sunset.
One injured as hay bale lorry overturns in Caravaca de la Cruz: the two occupants of the lorry received medical treatment on the spot.
Spanish government considers reducing tolls on ghost motorways: the long-term future of the economically unviable roads, including the stretch of the AP-7 between Cartagena and Vera, sometimes referred to as the “ghost motorway”, remains in doubt.
Isla Plana neighbours’ association bar closed by the police: the manager of “the social” is accused of serving hot food without a licence, leaving expats in the area without one of their favourite winter watering holes!
Moorish excavations begin in Plaza de San Esteban in Murcia 9 years after the site was found: guided tours will be offered as of next week during the 2-month dig in the centre of the regional capital.
Don´t forget that flu vaccines are available at health centres and over the counter at chemists! The Murcia government is well aware, and received their jabs this week…
Dog therapy for child patients begins at the Santa Lucía hospital in Cartagena: Mr Dogs begins the “Doctor Guau” scheme to stimulate the recovery of young patients, and while there are good medical reasons for introducing the scheme the main thing which was made clear during the dogs’ first visit to the hospital on Tuesday was that the kids love it!
Hundreds of Murcia lorry drivers trapped on French roads by fuel tax protesters: perishable goods and late deliveries are expected to lead to heavy losses for Murcia transport companies as the disruption in France goes on.
AS Roma joins backs the campaign to save Real Murcia football club! Murcia were Roma’s “Twitter Team of the Day” on Monday and hundreds of Italian fans bought shares, taking advantage of the latest attempts to save the club.
Scrap between unofficial car park attendants in Murcia ends with a punctured lung: the two men from Morocco and Senegal argued over who “owned” the right to annoy drivers in the Malecón by demanding payment for non-existent services supposedly supplied to drivers and watching over their parked cars.
Murcia and Spanish property news
A relatively thin week in terms of property market news ended with the publication of data which showed that while in Spain as a whole prices in the third quarter of 2018 were 3.2 per cent higher than a year previously, in the Region of Murcia there was a decrease of 0.5 per cent.
The figures come as something of a surprise, as many recent statistical bulletins have indicated that at long last market values have begun to bounce back in the Costa Cálida: indeed, the same source of data had shown year-on-year increases in Murcia in each of the three previous quarters, but a 2.3 per cent fall in comparison with the second quarter of this year reversed that trend.
The figure in Murcia is now at its lowest level since these data were first produced in 2007 having fallen by 3 per cent since the 3rd quarter of 2014, and while on the one hand this might help explain the sharp increase over the last two years in demand and sales figures, on the other hand it remains likely that the higher demand will soon push market prices upwards. If this is the case, and economic theory suggests that it ought to be, this could be a very good time to invest in property in the Costa Cálida!
Meanwhile, the new law being drawn up to oblige banks rather than borrowers to pay the judicial acts tax on mortgage loan agreements constituted also contains a raised repayment default threshold to prevent early bank embargoes: the proposal is to protect buyers facing difficulties for 12 months rather than 9 (or 3 per cent of the loan capital).
Spanish news summary: Gibraltar claims threaten Brexit deal
In a week when the UK government published updated Brexit information for UK nationals living in the EU the whole Brexit deal has been seriously jeopardized by the Spanish government’s insistence on recognition of their right to negotiate directly with the UK concerning the future status of Gibraltar.
The negotiating guidelines specify that Spain should have the last word in deciding whether the terms specified regarding Gibraltar are beneficial, and after Josep Borrell, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, stated on Monday that clarification and guarantees concerning the Rock were being sought it soon became clear that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is prepared to play a card which essentially amounts to a possible veto on any Brexit deal.
“If on Sunday at the @EUCouncil the Brexit agreement does not recognize that the situation of Gibraltar must be negotiated directly between Spain and the UK, this government will not accept it”, he tweeted, a message which he has since repeated on more than one occasion: on Wednesday evening, prior to a lightning trip to Cuba, Sr Sánchez referred to the issue of Gibraltar again, explaining that “we are conscious that this is an essential point and if this is not resolved then unfortunately Spain will not be able to vote in favour of it.” He later tweeted to the effect that “we are a pro-European government, but we cannot accept a Brexit agreement which questions the ability of Spain to negotiate the future of Gibraltar with the United Kingdom”.
An interesting couple of days lie ahead…
Elsewhere this week, Tuesday 20th November is a date which is indelibly etched in the memories of Spaniards of a certain age, as it marks the anniversary of the deaths of General Franco in 1975 and, in 1936, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange party he represented, and this year the date went far from unnoticed.
The day before the anniversary there was an outcry in Zaragoza, where the figure of the Virgen del Pilar, the patron of Spain, was dressed in the shawl of the Falange, which became the sole legal political party in this country under Franco’s rule. The Basilica Chapter apologized for the “error”, but it is suspected it was no accident and that the shawl did not appear on 20th November only because tradition demands that the Virgen del Pilar should not wear any of her 450 shawls on the 20th of each month.
As for why Franco’s supporters are becoming more visible in Spain recently, the general consensus is that there are three main factors: the government’s plans to exhume his mortal remains and have them re-buried at a site where the former dictator may not be glorified, the strength of feelings awakened by the Catalan independence movement and the Constitutional crisis it has come close to provoking, and the dramatic increase in the number of migrants making their way across the Mediterranean to the southern coastline, particularly in Andalucía.
Elsewhere in Spain there was a horrific incident in the region of Madrid, where a mother and daughter were “devoured” by the Bordeaux mastiffs owned by the elder of the two, and the heavy rain was held responsible for a fatal train derailment in Catalunya.
For more details on these and other stories in the Spanish news scroll down below…
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