Ten Years of La Marjal: The Park That Saved San Juan Beach in Alicante

It was on September 30, 1997, when a historic flood inundated Alicante. Streets turned into raging rivers, sweeping everything to the sea, even claiming the lives of four people. The following morning, the then Mayor of Alicante, Luis Díaz Alperi, made a decision: the city would never suffer such a tragedy again.

From that point, Alicante implemented the first municipal anti-flood plan until 2005. It involved the construction of large hydraulic infrastructures in the urban area of Alicante and its surroundings. These works provided capacity to urban collectors, mitigating the effects of heavy rains with nearly 40 kilometres of new channels.

However, years later, not all parts of the city were safe. Urban development led to new neighbourhoods like Gran Vía or the golf course, an extension of San Juan Beach and thus a flood-prone area. "It flooded systematically," recalled the Mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala, during the commemoration of the ten years of the floodable park of La Marjal.

This pioneering project was inaugurated in March 2015 after two years of construction. The essential idea of the executed work is based on the regulatory function of marshes, so common along the Mediterranean coast and in San Juan Beach before its urban transformation.

In its hydraulic aspect, the park is capable of retaining up to 45,000 cubic metres against a high-intensity rain, and subsequently, diverting the rainwater flow to the drainage network or the treatment plant. Thanks to this, a major flooding problem in the San Juan Beach area has been solved in a completely different way from traditional closed tanks or sea evacuation channels.

Since 1997, Alicante has experienced similar episodes of torrential rains. And the city has withstood them thanks to its safety network: those anti-flood works and the floodable park of La Marjal, which has saved San Juan Beach on three occasions.

Especially on August 21, 2019, when "the pond collected half of its capacity," highlights the General Director of Aguas de Alicante, Sergio Sánchez. It was 22,000 cubic metres of the up to 45,000 that the floodable park can store. An amount that, had it reached San Juan Beach, would have overwhelmed the sewage system and caused floods.

It has been, so far, the maximum record. Another reference date was March 13, 2017, with 15,500 m3 of water collected. The park has stored a total of 58,350 cubic metres in this decade.

As a result of its success, Aguas de Alicante has replicated the model. They have created what they call a 'storm tank' in San Gabriel and are drafting the project to install another floodable park in Vía Parque. They are Alicante's safety network against torrential rains.