Indignation over wetland declassification
ALTHOUGH last week’s new additions to the regional government’s catalogue of protected wetlands were welcomed by ecologists, they particularly criticised the declassification of an area near the mouth of the River Segura in Guardamar, where a neglected commercial centre has stood for many years.
Spokesman Sergio Arroyo told Costa Blanca News that excluding part of a sector of protected wetland at the river mouth in order to legalise a commercial centre was ‘completely regrettable’.
“The construction work on plot D of sector ZO-1, situated between the old course of the river and the Riegos de Levante irrigation canal, should never have been permitted by Guardamar town hall or Valencia regional government,” insisted AHSA’s objection, submitted when the draft of the updates to the catalogue was published in 2020.
“A procedure to restore legal town planning should be started immediately, which would entail the demolition of all the infrastructure and building works, carried out on land that has been protected since the current wetlands catalogue was approved in 2002, and the ecological restoration of the plot with appropriate
native plants.”
The dilapidated building now houses hardly any activity and has numerous vandalised areas that pose a danger to anyone who enters them, so its demolition is also necessary to guarantee people’s safety, the association argued.
Moreover, the plot is at risk of flooding and classified as landscape of regional relevance, as well as having a protected cattle trail passing through it.
In fact, none of the suggestions submitted by the friends of south Alicante wetlands association (AHSA) were taken into account by the regional government, said Sr Arroyo.
While he did praise the addition to the catalogue of La Pedrera reservoir in Orihuela and the mouth of the River Montnegre (aka Seco) in El Campello, both of which they had been calling for over the last two decades, several other wetlands they proposed were not accepted.