Summer without swimming on inland beaches broken by the flood: "It was our tourist attraction"

“People were arriving at 8 a.m. with their food, coolers, and umbrellas. Some stayed until nightfall because it was a quiet and spectacular beach, the best on the Turia River,” boasts the mayor of Bugarra, Teresa Cervera. An idyllic day that can't be repeated this year because the floodwaters devastated a river beach for which the City Council had requested Blue Flag status this year, before the tragedy. Cervera explains that the area was very well maintained, “paid for with the Bugarra residents' tax,” and when there wasn't enough money, the mayor herself and the Councilor for Social Services and Health would take the City Council car and, using a trailer, clean up visitors' trash to prepare the beach for the next day. Incidentally, the councilor emphasizes, “the floodwaters also took out three City Council cars.”

The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) reconstruction work on this continental beach began last week, removing material and refining the shores, and will continue for a month and a half. However, the mayor admits that swimming will be unlikely to be possible this summer.

Teresa Cervera explains that between July 15 and August 15, between 2,000 and 3,000 people could visit this river beach in Bugarra every day. There was a restaurant that flooded and, like the campsite, it remains closed. She explains the importance of this type of tourist attraction to the local economy. "I only asked that each visitor spend one euro in local businesses."

In Bugarra, the water destroyed its river beach and bathing areas, which during the summer days could be visited by up to 3,000 people.

Bugarra isn't the only bathing area affected by the flood. The Valencia Provincial Council, which has maintained direct contact with the mayors to understand their needs, explains that the flood has also affected bathing areas in towns such as Sot de Chera, Chelva, Gestalgar, and Tuéjar in one way or another.

For example, a few days ago, the Pedralba City Council published an edict advising against "bathing in the area of ​​the Turia River as it passes through the town, as it has been severely affected by the flood and does not meet the recommended access and safety conditions to ensure the proper conduct of leisure and recreational activities." Along these lines, the notice warned that "if anyone enters the area, they should exercise extreme caution, as cleanup and reconstruction work is being carried out by various entities."

They've had more luck in Chelva, where mayor David Cañigueral explains that some areas have been restored, and there are even some places where people can swim. The recreational area and kiosk bar have also been reopened, but not the sports court, which was swallowed up by the floodwaters. "It was a unique setting, a very family-friendly route, very valuable and well-visited; it was our tourist attraction," Cañigueral explains to La Vanguardia. The mayor He admits that the influx of people to the municipality will be lower this year. “We still need to make further improvements,” he points out.

Tomás Cervera, mayor of Sot de Chera, also hopes to have at least a 50- or 100-meter bathing area available. The mayor tells this newspaper that for a town of 450 residents, "the river is the main and almost the only economic driver; we are a river town." After the tragedy, he notes that October 29th has taught them the need to diversify the economy of this small municipality and has brought back to the memory of its inhabitants the old saying "work in the river, work lost."

Tomás Cervera points out that we must "think very carefully about how to develop infrastructure from now on," something that, he emphasizes, "our ancestors knew how to do, but we didn't." The mayor explains that the damage caused by the flood has swept away everything that had been developed in recent decades and the buildings that had been built along the banks of the river.

The mayor of Sot de Chera asks us to think carefully about how to develop infrastructure now; the water only damaged the most modern ones.

The Júcar Hydrographic Confederation explains that similar actions to those being carried out in Bugarra are being carried out along the Túria River. Thus, they explain, the state agency has been working for months in areas such as Gestalgar, Pedralba, Vilamarxant, Riba-roja de Túria, Manises, Paterna, and Quart de Poblet.

These works aim to restore and restitute the public water domain, but actions are also being carried out to make the recovery of the riverbed affected by the flood compatible with public use, such as the restoration of bathing areas. In Pedralba—where, as we recall, the City Council has advised against bathing—a large volume of plant material has been removed, and opaque tarpaulins are planned to be installed along the riverbed soon to prevent the proliferation of reeds and, as far as possible, return the area to its original state before October 29th.

The CHJ has been working for months in Gestalgar, Pedralba, Vilamarxant, Riba-roja de Túria, Manises, Paterna and Quart de Poblet

In other areas, such as the Pea de Vilamarxant area, some work is also planned to restore the morphology of the riverbed, which has historically served as a bathing area for residents. The work involves sediment management and relocation upstream of the Turia River, with the goal of reinforcing the areas that suffered the most erosion and restoring those that have received a significant volume of sediment.

In addition to the ongoing and planned work on the Túria River, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation has also carried out various actions to restore the public water domain, directly affecting areas previously used for bathing in several locations in the province of Castellón, such as the municipalities of Montanejos, Arañuel, Toga, Cirat, and Torrechiva. The work consisted of reorganizing sediments and removing fallen trees and debris.

Inland river and inland beaches won't be the only places to cool off that residents will miss this summer. In some municipalities in the Valencia metropolitan area devastated by the flood, municipal swimming pools have been unable to open. This is the case in Paiporta, ground zero of the disaster. City Hall explains that the pool is still closed because the construction of the sports center, which was located next to the ravine, must be fully completed.

Costs and contracting procedures have prevented some pools from being available for the summer.

Likewise, Benetússer will not have access to the municipal facility this summer, which was severely affected by the flood. The reconstruction project for the swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) and the sports center is costing four million euros. To make the summer more bearable, the City Council has set up a free bus service to Malva-rosa beach every Friday and Saturday in August.

In Aldaia, the summer pool will also be unable to open. "The repair of the facilities and all the machinery amounts to one million euros. The contracting law requires a tender for a project like this, and the process takes nearly a year," municipal sources point out. The machinery is still covered in mud.

The Provincial Council allocates 2.6 million to repair tourist infrastructure damaged by the storm.

The Valencia Provincial Council will allocate 2.6 million euros to repair the province's tourist infrastructure damaged by the storm on October 29.

These are two lines of aid that the Provincial Council, through its Department of Tourism, will implement to boost the recovery of tourism activity in municipalities that were affected, and for which the tourism sector is essential for a return to normality, both economically and socially.

The first line of action is dedicated to cleaning and removing reeds and mud, so that these spaces, whose backbone is water, can subsequently be reconditioned, repaired, and/or equipped. The second line of action is the replacement of infrastructure and facilities, through the rehabilitation, improvement, and expansion of rest and recreational areas and bathing areas that have been affected or destroyed by the flood.