The Spain we know is not prepared for today’s world

“The worst thing has been the explosions, we thought the houses were going to collapse.” María José Díaz, from Diario Sur, spent last night talking to the neighbors from Grazalema that have been relocated to Ronda. That phrase perfectly sums up the terror that ran through the people of Cadiz.

The evacuation of Grazalema. It has rained a lot in the mountains of Cádiz, that is not new. And they are not onlyalmost 600 l/m² on the rainiest dayis that in recent weeks more than 2,000 l/m² have been accumulated.

That is what has turned the streets of the town into a continuous river. That is what has caused water to flow from the floors of the houses, from the baseboards, from the wall sockets. That is what has finally caused the ‘explosions’ (the noises or cracks) that at first seemed like storms, but were quickly identified as hydroseisms.

Grazalema is in an environment of karst limestone rock. This suggests that beneath the ground there is a whole network of microcavities, conduits and small sinkholes. When the system becomes saturated and the water table rises, water can escape everywhere.

So he has done it.

What is reported in the press is calling ‘hydrosisms’ They can be understood as the response of the soil to that enormous amount of water. In Grazalema, the creaks are interpreted more as a form of rearrangement of the terrain. It may seem strange, but there is clear evidence of the process (also in Spain).

Why has it been evacuated? A priori, the evacuation makes technical sense (the state of the clogged aquifer is being studied), but also psychological (the situation among the population – as evidenced by testimonies – was becoming a nightmare).

What lessons can we learn from all this? As González Alemán recalled, we can’t say for sure that all this has something to do with climate change. It will have to be studied in detail, but what is certain is that yes has assumed (is assuming) a stress test of the water infrastructures of Andalusia and, by extension, of Spain.

And that should lead us to reflect on the enormous urban reconversion that will have to be undertaken if this follows what the trends indicate. It is not just towns like Grazalema, nor the coasts of the country. It is not only the buildings built in flood zones, nor the retaining walls that appear insufficient. It is the system as a whole.

A system that it is not clear that we can change in time.

Image | Heparin1985

In Xataka | If the question is how the Andalusian water system is holding up all this water, we have an answer: they are going to evacuate Grazalema completely