The Ashes from the April Fire in Tárbena Turn the Algar River Black

Last April, a forest fire scorched nearly 700 hectares near the Alicante municipality of Tárbena. After several days of intense work, the Provincial Firefighters Consortium, the Military Emergency Unit (UME), and Forest Firefighters first managed to control the flames and then declared the fire extinguished.

The immediate effects of that event are well known. Beyond the lost forest mass, several field 'sheds' were affected. At that time, local residents warned that the abandonment of agriculture and the terraces cultivated by their ancestors for generations meant that any spark could find the necessary fuel to become a major fire.

This same abandonment is also behind the 'delayed effect' consequences that this same fire has caused now, after the first significant rains experienced by the province of Alicante in general and the Marina Baixa region in particular.

These precipitations, which have not been reflected in the water levels accumulated in the Guadalest and Amadorio reservoirs (the CHJ monitoring system shows, in fact, that this amount has continued to decrease in recent days), have caused a considerable amount of ash to be carried away through the Algar River. Ashes, evidently, originating from that fire.

This material drift has resulted in a turbidity problem in the river waters, which present a very dark, almost black color downstream. A river that yesterday caused moments of tension in Altea, where its mouth is located, as the opening of gates in some basins along its course led to recommendations to close beaches near its confluence with the sea for swimming.

Another consequence of this phenomenon is felt by farmers because while some have seen their irrigation ponds' capacity increase during an emergency drought situation like the one declared in the region since early summer, those working in this area have seen their water supply intake halted.

A circumstance that Jaime Berenguer, Director of the Marina Baixa Water Consortium, told TodoAlicante he had not witnessed in decades and attributes to the abandonment of cultivation in highlands since "in the end, it produces very rapid runoff."

The mixture of ash and resin, he explained, produces a residue that adheres to river stones and cannot be dissolved by rains like those experienced this week. To do so, he added, a very substantial precipitation would be needed to wash away the remnants of the fire that scorched over 700 hectares last spring.

For this reason, coinciding with what local residents demanded at that time, Berenguer considers public environmental policies necessary to promote agriculture in an increasingly abandoned territory left to pine trees—a species that burns easily.

In Berenguer's opinion, plowing is essential; this agricultural action aerates or tills the surface for the first time, oxygenating the soil and allowing other agents introduced by human or natural action to enter.

While all this is happening around the Algar River, rainfall in Marina Baixa stands at around 120 liters per square meter when a normal year's average is about 600.

Throughout the summer period, it was necessary to introduce 3.2 cubic hectometers of water into the system from Mutxamel's desalination plant—50% of this valuable resource's total demand.

The Water Consortium's head now hopes to have overcome the most critical period and has expressed gratitude to primary sector workers for restricting irrigation over recent months to ensure supply.