Alicante

The Norwegian colony that has taken over a town in Alicante and even has its own constitution: L’Alfas del Pi

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Avenida del Albir smells of saltpeter and marinated herring. There is brunost in the supermarket, that curious brown Norwegian cheese. There are also bags of salmiakki, the Finnish salty liquorice. A blond man walks with a bunad accompanied by two others in T-shirts. The three of them are sweating buckets. Even a dental clinic has its sign in Swedish, but it is not a residential neighborhood in Oslo or Stockholm, it is L’Alfàs del Pi. It is an Alicante enclave of 20,000 inhabitants that operates as a Viking base, the twelfth Norwegian county, under the harsh sun of the Mediterranean. A demographic delirium. The National Statistics Institute marks little more than 21,000 inhabitantsbut almost 30% of the census comes from Norway. Let’s add another 20% between Finns, Swedes and Danes. Official figures fluctuate depending on the season: many residents do not register their municipal register for tax reasons (there are only about 2,5000 registered Norwegians). However, visual reality does not lie. There are runes and several shop windows of local real estate agencies that ignore the euro and value villas directly in crowns. On the Costa Blanca. And here May 17 is celebrated with devotion. Because this day is celebrated as Norwegian Constitution Day. The party paralyzes the town and thousands of people parade through the central streets. Blonde children wave their flags and marching bands play the national anthem. The Spanish mayor, Vicente Arques Cortés, politician and educational psychologist, delivers institutional speeches in perfect Norwegian. Without them, “there would only be olive trees, almond trees and goats,” resume in which is, along with London, the largest colony of Nordic subjects on the planet. A diplomatic link of eight centuries. Already in the 13th century, King Haakon Haakonsson ‘the Elder’ traveled to Spain to marry his daughter to Philip, infant of Castile, fifth son of Ferdinand III and brother of King Alfonso X the Wise. According to the story, in the end the princess fell prey to melancholy for living so far from her birth home. His remains lie in the Collegiate Church of San Cosme and San Damián de Covarrubias, which gives rise to the pilgrimage route of San Olav. That marriage sealed one of the first great diplomatic ties between the Scandinavian kingdoms and the Iberian Peninsula. Princess Christina of Norway never adapted to the climate, the language or a Castilian court radically different from the fjords where she had grown up. He died just four years after arriving in Castilla, at only 28 years old. Their pain sealed a relationship that there will be those who consider began with the retirees of the Costa Blanca. Mafias and violence. In return, the event pages of L’Alfàs del Pi have a separate space. Because, apparently, they don’t just import peaceful retirees, they also attract outright terror. In this small Scandinavia, the Swedish and Norwegian mafia clans control a good part of the European drug trafficking from here. It has been known for a decade that clubs like Den Norske Klubb They are “problematic”. The bikers of Hells Angels They established operational bases in Alicante years ago and control a good part of the nightlife. Million-dollar money laundering schemes are still being investigated. To the recent news of sale of vapers for minors or the 17 people arrested by a criminal gang that stole jewelry at gunpoint is added to all that hashish that arrives in speedboats from Morocco, or the cocaine that enters through the ports of Valencia and Algeciras. Scandinavian organizations buy merchandise on Alicante soil. They then send it to northern Europe through complex logistics networks. Live and die without speaking Spanish. He Europol Report (SOCTA – Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment analyzes the expansion of Scandinavian criminal networks in southern Europe and concludes that “drastic measures” are required. Organized crime brings fresh blood and settling of scores. And the Home Office has published several crime balances of the UDYCO (Drugs and Organized Crime Unit) on this social problem. The Norwegian Costa Blanca Club, the Norwegian school, the monumental Protestant church and other services have been established so that the Norwegian resident can live comfortably without needing to pronounce a single word of Spanish, as happens in Fuengirola with the FinnsTorrevieja with its concentration of Russians and Ukrainians u Orihuela with the thousands of british that houses An oasis for good and bad. The vast majority of Norwegian residents are part of a community that has been settled for decades. Movies like ‘Luger‘ (2025) flirt with an idea that too often is just pure xenophobia. They have cultural associations such as the Volunteer Center-Frivilling, schools funded by Norway, sports clubs, press in their language, specialized shops and social life that has disrupted the local economy. The heat, and not only that of the sun but that of coexistence, explains why the municipality continues to be a reference for Scandinavian emigration in the Mediterranean. However, the municipality is also a victim of that other side. Local agents, for example, collaborate daily with Kripos, the Norwegian national police, which has already uncovered cases such as the network that operated paying with monero tokens. The Nordic noir, not as cold, but just as calculated in the palm-lined streets of L’Alfàs del Pi. Over the past few years, police helicopters have mapped the thermal signatures of the crypto mining farmsused to finance crime. How are you happening now to Belgiumthe Alicante networks served for the heyday of EncroChat (2020) and Sky ECC (2021), two networks from which European mafias moved with more than 800 criminals involved. Images | EFE/Pablo Miranzo In Xataka | “I won’t take the car that day.” Mallorca fears that there is something worse than mass tourism: mass eclipse tourism

The oldest reservoir in Europe is in Alicante. It is 400 years before Franco

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It starts raining and someone says: “We’ll need all this water for later.” Spain’s relationship with dams, reservoirs and swamps seems complicated, as if catching every drop of torrential rain were a simple requirement. The reality is that in our country there are 374 reservoirs with 56,000 cubic hectometers (hm³) of capacity. This involves trapping approximately 50% of the country’s river flow. Because Spain has always been a land of reservoirs. Before its official name existed, before the Enlightenment, before Velázquez was even born, there was already a 46-meter dam containing water in a town in Alicante. It still stands and, in fact, still works. And he continues watering gardens every summer. Commissioned by a king, not a dictator. The Tibi Reservoir rises above the Monnegre Riverbetween the municipalities of Tibi and Jijona. Philip II commissioned its construction in 1580 to the Italian engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, following a proposal from two residents of Muchamiel, Miguel Alcaraz and Pere Izquierdo, who knew well the behavior of the river. After the first push, the works were stopped due to lack of money with only six meters of wall raised. They were resumed nine years later and finished in 1594. The result: a gravity dam with a curved plan, 46 meters high and 65 meters high, the highest in Europe at its time, a record that was not surpassed until the Enlightenment. Its arch design, with a radius of 107 meters, anticipated the technique of modern arch dams, those that transfer the force of water to their abutments and foundations. Broken, repaired, and still in use. The reservoir suffered a major break in 1697 and several generations were left unable to use it. In 1601, a flood opened a crack and left the reservoir dry. They repaired it, but badly. And the years continued to pass. Until 1697, where a serious breakage left several generations unable to use its water. In fact, the dam remained unavailable for 40 years. In those days a legend was born that well deserves its folk horror film: the Quarantamaula, a bug that was half cat, half rooster, half wolf, which hid among the reeds. No one knew where the cracks originated and they spoke of sabotage. Maybe it was the slope of the terrain, maybe it was an attack or something intentional using a drum of gunpowder. Or they simply used too cheap materials. In 1736 the repair began and lasted two years. And until today. The sediments accumulated over centuries reduced its original capacity, from between 4 and 5.4 million cubic meters, to the current 2 cubic hectometers. Even so, The Alicante Orchard Irrigation Union continues to manage it for the same purpose for which it was built: to water the Alicante orchard. In 1994, coinciding with the fourth centenary of its completion, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it an Asset of Cultural Interest. Why is it still standing?. The secret is not only in the stone, it is in the surrounding rock. The technicians chose a gorge barely nine meters wide between two almost vertical limestone walls, Mos del Bou and La Cresta, and laid out the wall in a curve, with a radius of 107 meters, so that the thrust of the water was transmitted laterally towards that rock instead of falling only on the dam. In practice they built less of a wall and more of an artificial extension of the mountain: from floor to ceiling, this was carved ashlar on the outside, filled masonry on the inside. That curved idea, so counterintuitive in 1580, did not come from any Crown engineer: it was proposed by Pere Esquerdo, a miller from Mutxamel whom local chronicles call “the first inventor of the swamp.” The royal technicians, the Antonellis, Jorge Palearo—and Juan de Herrera, the same architect of El Escorial, for the final revision of 1594— limited themselves to perfecting the idea of ​​a neighbor without a title. The result lasted two centuries as the highest dam in the world. In 1941, already in the midst of Franco’s regime, a new drainage tunnel was added. That is all that the regime touched on Tibi, when it had already been operating for almost 350 years. The wall that is seen today is still, in essence, that of 1594. There are even older dams. In fact, Tibi shares the podium with the Almansa reservoir, in Albacete, completed in 1584 and considered the first modern construction of this type in Europe. Between the two, Tibi is the one that has been operating the longest without interruption and the one that removed the most stone (more than 40,000 cubic meters). And neither of them is the oldest in the country: The official inventory of large dams starts with Cornalvo and Proserpinanear Mérida, built by the Romans in the first century. And any historian knows that already built in wet. On the Arroyo de la Albuhera (a tributary of the Aljucén and, in turn, the Guadiana), Mérida, the Roman capital of Lusitania, had this earth and concrete dam covered with older granite ashlars. More than one hundred of the large dams that still exist in Spain today already existed in 1915, two decades before the Civil War. The joke doesn’t fit the story.. The recurring joke that, when faced with any swamp, one says “Franco did it” is a pantomime. The regime itself fed that idea on purpose with the NO-DO, showing the dictator cutting ribbons and opening floodgates. And it is true that many reservoirs were built between 1939 and 1975: the WWF calculates 581 large dams alone between 1950 and 1980, with the labor of political prisoners in conditions of forced labor. But Spanish hydraulic policy was not invented by Francoism. It was born in 1902 with the Gasset Plan, and was institutionalized in 1926, under Primo de Rivera, with the creation of the Hydrographic Confederations. His Avengers version, the most ambitious, the National Plan for Hydraulic Works of 1933, was a project of the Second Republic, … Read more

In Alicante they are experts making works with ancient art. Until they found a Roman sphinx embedded in a staircase

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Recycling in the architecture of Antiquity (or the Middle Ages) was neither an ecological sensitivity nor an aesthetic trend. Rather, it was pure and simple economic survival. If you had good quality square stone, go ahead and build. It mattered little whether that stone had been part of a temple dedicated to Jupiter, whether it was the statue of a disgraced emperor or, as in this case, a mythological creature. It has a name: architectural cannibalism is known in the art world as spolia. And thanks (or because) of it, Spanish archeology has just solved a mystery that had been gathering dust in a warehouse for decades. In the archaeological site of El Monastil, located in the town of Elda (Alicante), researchers have “decrypted” a piece who had been camouflaged under a false identity for too long. The rain acting as an archaeologist. It all started in the year 2000, during the arduous excavation work of a late Roman wall located in El Monastil. Workers unearthed a three-step ladder that looked like a typical routine structural find. The following year, the Levantine climate worked its magic: torrential rains swept the area and caused the ashlars to collapse, exposing new features. Upon inspecting the damage, the team led by archaeologist Antonio M. Poveda discovered that one of the blocks was not conventionally quarried stone. The deliberate marks betrayed a previous history. Which? That someone, during the Visigoth or Byzantine occupation in the 5th or 6th centuries, mutilated a monumental sculpture, cutting it down with a sledgehammer to turn it into a simple step. Twenty years of confusion. Carved from local beige limestone, it was barely 31 centimeters high and 55 centimeters wide; what remains is a tiny fraction of its original volume. This sphinx was missing its head, wings and legs, with a surface so eroded by blows that its identification became a headache: an Iberian female figure or a random goddess? It wasn’t until last year, when the Archaeological Museum of Elda A thorough cleaning was undertaken when, in collaboration with Professor Ferrán Arasa i Gil, one of the greatest experts in Roman sculpture in Spain, remains were compared. And the shape matched too well with other sphinxes found in limes Germanic, from Romania and northern Italy. The verdict was unanimous: a Roman funerary sphinx from the 1st century AD The sophisticated security system for the afterlife. This creature of Egyptian origin and Greek traces is no ornament. And here is the key: it is a psychopomp, the guide in charge of collecting the soul of the deceased and transporting it. Its presence in the tomb fulfills an apotropaic function: the fierce gaze and hybrid posture, with the body of a lion and the torso of a woman, exist to scare away looters and protect the eternal sleep of those who rested beneath it. Have you seen ‘The Neverending Story’? His famous fulminating sphinxes are inspired by the same. Apparently, the owner of this piece was part of the rural elite of Ilici Augusta (current Elche). They were landowners who, in a time of great prosperity under Augustus and the Julio-Claudians, competed to display social status through monumental mausoleums. Built next to the Via Augusta. So the figure was another banner of power and prestige in full Romanization. He plunders well without looking at who. For the Visigoths, the sphinx was no longer a sacred symbol. The case of Elda, with this disdain for the artistic past in favor of pragmatism, rhymes quite well with other recycling imposed in Baetulo (Badalona), Segóbriga (Cuenca), Obulco (Jaén) or Carissa Aurelia (Cádiz). The most canonical example is found in the mosque of Córdoba: Abd al-Rahman I reused Roman and Visigoth columns and capitals, from the temple of Janus, from previous Christian villas and basilicas, to raise the forest of columns in the prayer room. In Toledo, the Christ of Light is the ancient Bab al-Mardum mosque. San Pedro de la Nave, in Zamora, was a 7th century Visigoth church dismantled and reassembled like a collage. And the same with the Basilica of Santa Eulalia, in Mérida, built on a Roman temple dedicated to Mars. Even the Almohad minaret of the Giralda in Seville was converted into a Christian bell tower by the braves. What makes special Monastil is that it is an inexhaustible “matryoshka” of civilizations. This Alicante site is a time capsule where the Bronze Age, the Punic presence, the Roman military base from the time of Pompey, the Byzantine monastery and the later Visigoth church overlap. In this immense network of strata it is easy to find history cut up and relocated, outside the contexts for which it was created. Many now lie in the warehouse of the Elda museum, treasures waiting to be reclassified and archaeological history rewritten. Images | FoxR for Wikipedia, Flickr (Santiago López-Pastor) In Xataka | If the question is how the Egyptian pyramids were made, science has an idea: hydraulic systems In Xataka | In a display of technical superiority, France has just invented traditional white towns. We, however, have forgotten about them

In Alicante, the Animal Welfare Law is causing demonstrations for a very specific thing: feline colonies

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Despite the rain and the cold and the fact that the call was made Sunday at noona few weeks ago around 200 people They went out on the street in Alicante, with banners and a megaphoneto demand, among other things, the resignation of the city’s mayor. They did not mobilize the housing, the increase in price from the shopping cart, unemployment, immigrationcorruption or any of the other issues that according to the CIS It keeps the Spaniards awake at night. What led them to complain are the feline colonies from Alicante. Or rather, how the City Council is managing them despite the fact that since 2023 the Animal Welfare Law (and the autonomous) clearly states what your responsibilities are. What has happened? April 12 around 200 people They met on the Explanada de España, on the seafront of Alicante, to demand that the City Council change its management policy for feline colonies. Between messages such as “cats are unprotected” or “not looking is abandoning,” the protesters denounced what they consider a passive attitude on the part of the City Council, responsible for the street colonies. “He has done absolutely nothing,” regretted in statements to the newspaper Information Antonio Ripoll, president of the Felinos Lo Morant association. The group assures that, despite their insistence on the situation of the colonies, from the Consistory they have only received “excuses” and answers that they interpret as “a way of delaying things.” One of the triggers for the April 12 demonstration came to early marchwhen the Colonias Felinas Alicante (Acofal) association denounced that the municipal cleaning services had removed the cat houses installed in the Parque de la Ereta, which left their colony without shelter or food. “Scattered and disoriented”. What happened in Ereta even led PACMA to launch a statement in which it denounces “the repeated withdrawal” of food, water and shelters in the area, which affects “more than one hundred cats registered”, and warns the City Council of “a possible violation of regional and state animal protection legislation.” “It is impossible to move the cats from the Ereta Park, which occupies the entire slope of the mountain that surrounds the Santa Bárbara Castle,” underlines the collective: “The withdrawal of food, water and shelter leaves the animals unprotected, dispersed and disoriented, especially in episodes of rain.” What does the LBA have to do with it? Both in the messages of the animal associations and in that of PACMA it is repeated a fundamental idea: If the focus is on the City Council it is because for a few years the Animal Welfare Law (LBA) clearly states that local administration plays a key role in the management and care of feline colonies. In fact, PACMA warns that what happened in Ereta could “constitute a violation” of state regulations, the Law 7/2023but also the autonomous range, the 2/2023. “They oblige public administrations to guarantee the correct management and protection of feline colonies,” argues the animalist party. The message is very similar to the one sent from the associative world. Ripoll, for example, matches in which the City Council “is systematically failing to comply with the animal welfare law.” Even they point out that colonies often depend on caregivers who manage them by investing their own resources and time, something they attribute to the lack of “budget and adequate technical personnel” in the animal protection office. Chapter VI. Article 39. The truth is that the legislation is very clear on this matter. The state law 7/2023 of protection of the rights and well-being of animals details in its chapter IV, article 38, the role of city councils: “In the absence of other provisions in regional legislation and respecting the scope of competence established by current legislation, it is up to local entities to manage community cats, for which purposes they must develop Feline Colony Management Programs.” Even precise What minimum requirements should these management plans cover: encourage citizen collaboration, launch training and information campaigns, and establish population control plans. Also the care of animals. In fact, the rule makes it clear that it must be the local entity that assumes “responsibility for health care”, using registered veterinarians to do so, and also establishes protocols for treating cat colonies. Does the law say more? Yes. It puts a few homework extra to city councils (for example, including sterilizations in population control plans), specifies the roles of regional administrations and citizens and finally highlights certain actions that are categorically “prohibited” in the colonies. These include sacrificing cats with very specific exceptions, taking specimens from colonies (and therefore not used to being among humans and confined) to “animal protection centers” and exchanging animals from one colony to another. The law too precise that cats can only be removed from their communities in certain cases. In case there were any doubts Valencian law It also emphasizes that the town councils, hand in hand with animal associations and veterinarians, “will carry out comprehensive management” of the colonies in their municipalities. And that includes CER (Capture, Sterilization and Recovery) programs, feeding, shelter, supervision and health treatment for the felines. “Community cats will be identified with a microchip under the ownership of the local administration.” Beyond Alicante. Alicante is not the only municipality in which the application of the LBA and its obligations has generated friction with the town councils. In Torres Torres (Valencian Community) the volunteers who take care of the feline colonies recently threatened also with going to the Ombudsman in the face of what they consider the “inaction of the city council” and at the end of 2025 PACMA denounced that the Donostia City Council was violating Law 7/2023 in a neighborhood of the city. Similar situations have been experienced in Sangunt (Valencian Community) or Saint Joseph (Ibiza). “Volunteer veterinarians”. Two years ago, shortly after the approval of the LBA, the Alicante College of Veterinarians even released a statement to remember two key ideas about caring for cat colonies. The first is that “population and health control” depends on … Read more

Great white sharks are appearing off the Alicante coast. The problem is that we don’t know if it’s good news or bad news.

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On April 20, 2023, by pure chance, some fishermen caught a juvenile-sized white shark. No one would have been surprised if it weren’t for the fact that the fishermen were in Spanish waters, right in front of the Alicante Cape of La Nao. Two meters 10 centimeters of white shark in the middle of the Mediterranean, what was happening here? Do we have to worry? That is the question that was asked at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and, in collaboration with the University of Cádiz, has carried out a deep review of the presence of white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea. It is not something superficial: they have collected all the records (direct and indirect) from 1862 to 2023 and have reached a surprising conclusion. The presence of this type of specimen has been “persistent” (although “extremely rare”) in the Spanish Mediterranean. It is not something, a priori, worrying. As explained José Carlos Báezresearcher at the IEO-CSIC, “we have only found two attacks: one in 1862, in which a person died in Malaga who was swimming, and another in the eighties, when a shark bit a surfer’s board in Tarifa and caused serious injuries.” But the problem is not that. And, although “with the available data, it is not possible to affirm that the Mediterranean white shark population is recovering”, it is inevitable to think about what will happen in an increasingly warmer sea. In the end, “the presence of young individuals provides key information about the demographic structure of the species” and, one way or anotherthis leads us to seriously consider the risks of having breeding spaces in Spanish waters. However, everything seems to indicate that there is a relationship between the presence of the shark and the routes of the bluefin tuna. If so, it would be another symptom of the problems that sharks have to keep their populations healthy and robust. Should we worry? It doesn’t seem like it. Against the media angle about the “return of the monster”, international evidence tells us that attacks are extremely rare and the role of sharks in the conservation of aquatic ecosystems is very important. Be that as it may, monitoring and conservation programs must be developed. And it has to be done soon. Image | Oleksandr Sushko In Xataka | The white shark is an exceptional swimmer. Its secret is in its “teeth”

A third of the planet’s ships depend on a single Norwegian company. And they have chosen Alicante for their global expansion

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In the world of shipping, there is a silent giant whose technology is responsible for ensuring that a third of the world’s fleet is not lost at ocean or collided in port. This is Kongsberg, the Norwegian conglomerate controlled mostly by its State, which has turned the province of Alicante into an indispensable piece of its global chess board. Today, more than 30,000 ships they are capable of plowing the seas thanks to systems that are managed, maintained and repaired from offices located between La Vila Joiosa and the NOBO business center in the capital of Alicante. A strategic divorce to conquer the stock market. The news that has shaken the foundations of the industry this year is the segregation of the matrix. According to the company itselfKongsberg Gruppen ASA has decided to split into two independent entities to gain agility: on the one hand, the Defense and “Discovery” division (fishing and research); and on the other, Kongsberg Maritime, the jewel in the crown dedicated to navigation systems, which will begin trading separately on the Oslo Stock Exchange on April 23, 2026. This financial independence is backed by solid figures on Spanish soil. According to the newspaper The Informationthe Spanish subsidiary invoiced a total of 31.7 million euros in 2024, with a profit of more than five million. It is not surprising that Lisa Edvardsen Haugan, future CEO of the new independent company, claim that they are “unitarily positioned for value creation in the global maritime sector.” Why Alicante and not Vigo or Algeciras? The story of how a Nordic power ended up installing its nerve center in the province of Alicante has a component that is as human as it is strategic. In 1995, the company was looking for a headquarters in Spain. Although ports like Vigo or Barcelona seemed logical options, the executive in charge of the expansion opted for the coast of Alicante. The reason was the existence of a historical and consolidated colony of Norwegians in municipalities such as La Vila Joiosa or Altea. However, what began as a small delegation for the fishing sector—under the name Simrad Spain— has mutated into something much more ambitious. After the purchase of the maritime division of Rolls-Royce, the structure became too small. Today, the move of Kongsberg Maritime to the NOBO business center in the capital of Alicante responds to a need to attract talent. Miguel Ángel González, general director in Spain, points out that this change seeks to increase the attractiveness of the firm to retain engineers and software developers, in addition to reducing emissions due to staff travel by 30%. The brain of the autonomous boat. Alicante is not a simple administrative office; It is one of the only three resource hubs that the group has on the planet, along with Poland and Norway itself, capable of serving ships around the world thanks to its strategic position between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. As explained by the company itselfnaval autonomy is not new — they have been developing Dynamic Positioning Systems (DPS) for 40 years that allow a ship to remain stationary at an exact point in the ocean without using anchors — but now the technology has reached a “critical mass.” Yara Birkeland: The world now look in amazement to the world’s first fully electric, autonomous and zero-emission container ship, developed by Kongsberg together with YARA. Reach Remote: This is a series of unmanned surface vessels (USV) that are controlled from a remote center. According to senior designer Erik Leendersthis allows a single captain to control several ships at once from dry land. The “Jewel in the Crown”: The DPS system is what allows that Sasemar (Maritime Rescue) oil platforms or rescue ships operate with extreme safety on the high seas. The horizon. The future of navigation involves electric motors that generate your own energy with the rotation of the propellers. To manage this complex flow of data, the firm Kognifai has launchedan Artificial Intelligence platform that optimizes ship operations. Although the technology is ready, the company’s technical report warns that the biggest current challenge is not engineering, but legislation. As the firm warnswe are in “uncharted territory” and the IMO still needs to define the rules for these ships without humans. What was born in 1995 as a fishing office in La Vila has become in 2026 the command post from which Norway and Alicante dictate the rules of the future of global trade by sea. Image | Kongsberg Xataka | The ships of the oil “ghost fleet” turn off their GPS to avoid being detected. Malaysia is going to hunt them with drones

The water from the Tagus is going to stay in Castilla-La Mancha. So Alicante and Murcia already have a plan B: set up desalination plants

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Water management in the Spanish Levant is not only a question of engineering, but a political and territorial battle that is released in each cubic hectometer. While the reservoirs at the head of the Tagus fluctuate and the rules of the game change in the Madrid officesthe Segura Basin tries to shield its survival through technology. With the Tajo-Segura Transfer in the regulatory spotlightthe Government has been forced to accelerate its “plan B”: converting sea water into the lungs of European agriculture. Green light to the preliminary projects. The Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) already has on the table the design of the two desalination plants that promise to give a break to the Cuenca Plan. Mario Urrea, at the head of the organization, has signed the contracts to draw up the preliminary projects for works that will cost 1.34 million euros in the technical phase alone. However, the plan has already collided with local political reality. According to local mediathe exact location of the plant planned for the left bank (Torrevieja area) is a point of friction: the Torrevieja City Council and the Generalitat Valenciana have already expressed a “frontal rejection” of the possibility of the new plant being installed in said municipal area. To avoid this premature shock, the CHS refers generically to the “surroundings of the La Pedrera reservoir”, although technically the most viable thing would be to locate it next to the existing plant in Torrevieja, very close to the sea. The puzzle of numbers. The objective is to achieve water guarantee criteria, but the details reveal notable confusion in the scope of the plan. While the Government initially pointed out to a 100 hm3 plant for the Torrevieja area, the current specifications reduce that figure by half, placing it at 50 hm3. However, planning suggests that, adding the capacities of both facilities, up to 150 hm3 per year could be contributed to the system. The surgical distribution of this unconventional resource will be structured as follows: Right Bank Desalination Plant (Águilas): It will produce 50 hm3 annually. Of these, 33.5 hm3 will be used to relieve overexploited underground masses such as Alto Guadalentín and Mazarrón, while 16.5 hm3 will reinforce direct supply in Lorca, Totana and areas of Almería. Left Bank Desalination Plant (Torrevieja): With a projected production of up to 100 hm3 (according to the horizon of the basin plan), it will allocate 58.5 hm3 to alleviate the undersupply of the Cartagena and Alicante Field (Albatera, San Isidro), in addition to dedicating 41.5 hm3 to the recovery of aquifers such as Cabo Roig. A divided plan under the stigma of energy. The project has been divided into two strategic lots with an initial execution period of 12 months for its drafting. The lot on the right bank has been awarded to the company Typsa for 674,575 euros, with the mandate to study its connection with the existing desalination plant in Águilas. For its part, the lot on the left bank has been awarded to Ayesa Engineering for 669,286 euros, with the mission of connecting the infrastructure with the La Pedrera reservoir to distribute water through the post-transfer channels. A critical aspect is sustainability. Both preliminary projects must necessarily include the design of photovoltaic solar plants to reduce the high electrical cost of desalination. However, this point raises skepticism: as the local press remembersthe Government has not yet managed to materialize the solar plant in 2024 for the current Torrevieja desalination plant due to lack of location. The time factor: an insurmountable obstacle. Despite the signing of these contracts, the solution will not be immediate. The Ministry estimates that these desalination plants will take between five and six years to be operational, given that after drafting the preliminary project comes a complex phase of environmental processing, public information and possible expropriations. For irrigators, this calendar is “unaffordable”. They find themselves trapped in a temporal clamp; While climate change and the new transfer rules impose cuts today, the promised alternative will not arrive, in the best of cases, until the beginning of the next decade. Water peace or temporary truce? The commitment to desalination is the central axis of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition’s strategy to close the Segura water gap. However, with the transfer rules about to change and an execution of works that is projected into the next decade, the new desalination plants are born in a climate of technical and political uncertainty. The signature of Mario Urrea puts the paper on the table, but water—and territorial peace—still seem to be far away on the horizon. Image | CHS Segura Xataka | After the rains, the battle between communities begins: the Tagus is full and the Segura basin is already demanding its water

Ouigo already has permission to stand up to Renfe between Murcia and Alicante. And that only means one thing

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There will be two trains between Alicante and Murcia, stopping in Elche, and another additional train for this last link from Elche and Murcia. It is the approval that the CNMC has given to the Ouigo service that will rival Renfe in the east of the country. A service that will be provided on the high-speed line and that, if everything happens as before, will have an immediate effect on prices. The line. The line between Alicante and Murcia is currently operated by Renfe with two services, one high-speed and another Cercanías. Now it will be Ouigo that also provides service on that last line, the one that Renfe operates with Avant trains, those high-speed ones for medium distances. has confirmed it the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) in a statement in which it gives the go-ahead for Ouigo to offer two daily trains in each direction to cover Alicante-Murcia, with an intermediate stop in Elche. In addition, there will be an additional train in both directions each day to cover the Elche-Murcia route. Does not affect. According to the CNMC, the new service proposed by Ouigo does not affect public services. They point out that the conventional network is guaranteed by Renfe, with a service with many more stops and slower. High speed, they say, is also assured because, they point out, Ouigo services “have much fewer frequencies and are more expensive.” Right now, if we take a look at the price of trains Within a few months, we can find Avant or AVLO high-speed trains between Alicante and Murcia between 10 and 15 euros. The AVE trip costs about 25 euros. The current offer is also supported by 10 Avant or AVLO services and two more AVE services in each direction from Monday to Friday. Ouigo’s proposal. Until now, Renfe has been offering this service with an average duration of about 55 minutes. The Ouigo proposal, which is already active, allows you to take the same route for nine euros but saving travelers 10 minutes, covering the section between Alicante and Murcia in 45 minutes. With the very low prices that Renfe currently offers on the line, Ouigo does not have much room for maneuver but hopes to attract passengers who travel without large suitcases (these options can raise the price up to 26 euros, equivalent to the price of the AVE). What is clear is that it is tough competition for the 15 euro Avant services which are only more attractive if you cannot travel at another time. The proposal between Murcia and Alicante It’s clear. The train leaves this first city at 06:35 in the morning and offers a return to Murcia at 21:27. From Alicante to Murcia, the train leaves in the morning at 10:57 and offers a service to Alicante at 19:53. That is, the day will be more useful for those who travel from Murcia to Alicante and return on the same day, since there is only one train available between both cities. With transport doubts. The approval from the CNMC comes after Transport has tried to stop the process or, at least, delay it as much as possible. And the Ministry asked the organization for an economic report on the impact on Renfe’s public services. That is why the CNMC highlights in its statement that they do not observe an impact on it. What is certain is that Renfe now faces new complications in a corridor that is on the rise. They point out in The Economist that the corridor between Madrid and Alicante registered its historical passenger record in the last quarter analyzed, adding 1.29 million travelers between July and September. Now, travel between Madrid and Murcia, after passing through Alicante, has more offers than ever. a trend. Although in this case the room for maneuver is much less, it is expected that the average prices between both cities will decrease slightly. With Ouigo offering trips for nine euros between Murcia and Alicante and, above all, saving 10 minutes of travel in a stretch of less than an hour, there are not many reasons to go for more expensive options. It is a maxim that has followed Ouigo in all the corridors where he has put up a fight against Renfe. For very little, where they compete Ouigo always has the cheapest ticket price and has managed to reduce them drastically in the first months of competition. Although with time It is something that is softening and tending towards stabilitythe first step is always to lower prices. Photo | Eric Salard and Joana Hall In Xataka | Renfe is selling its AVLO for 7 euros in Andalusia: it is the new battlefield in the price war against Ouigo and Iryo

There are so many English people living in Alicante that the largest British pub chain has decided something: open there

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The millions of British tourists who land in the province of Alicante each year will now have a piece of their country just before they leave. As if Benidorm, Torrevieja or the entire Costa Blanca had not been enough, next January the first Wetherspoon in all of continental Europe will open at the Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández airport. A “100 Montaditos British style”, but installed in the boarding area and designed, paradoxically, for those who are already queuing to return to the United Kingdom. The very British landing. According to The Guardianthe chain has confirmed that its premiere outside the United Kingdom and Ireland will be in Alicante, where it will open a newly built pub called Castell de Santa Bàrbera (when in Valencian it would be Castell de Santa Bàrbara), in “homage” to the fortress that crowns the city. This is a striking move for the company founded by Tim Martin more than four decades ago and which had never operated on continental European territory. For its part, as The Independent has detailedthe store will open every day from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and will be located in the departures area, aimed mainly at British people returning from vacation. The space will be about 93 square meters and will have an outdoor terrace. In addition, the menu will replicate 90% of the typical Wetherspoon pub menu: full English breakfasts, fish and chips, burgers and pizzas. Even so, it will also incorporate some typical Spanish dish such as garlic prawns or Spanish tortilla, an adaptation that the company has already confirmed. The choice is not accidental. British tourism in the province of Alicante is one of the most important in the region; Benidorm is well known for this. According to data collected by La Vanguardiaalmost 90% of English people choose the province as their favorite destination. Although a decade ago the owner publicly celebrated Brexitthe chain has recently experienced slowing growth in the UK: like-for-like sales of 3.7% in the first 14 weeks of the financial year, lower than in previous years. According to The Telegraphthe company is suffering from the increase in labor, energy and tax costs, which has led its president to explore new markets, and hence its strategy focused on airports: places where traffic is guaranteed and the clientele is usually predisposed to consume, even at times when most bars would not open. A British icon, almost invisible for Alicante. Despite the commotion that the news has generated in the province, the truth is that this first Wetherspoon on the European continent will be out of reach of the general public. It will be necessary to pass security control to access, which makes it a rarity: a British icon installed in Alicante, but almost invisible to the people of Alicante. Although Alicante will be the first, it will not be the only one. Tim Martin has reiterated in different British media that his intention is to open “several pubs abroad in the coming months and years, including some in airports”. The new location at Alicante airport will, therefore, be a test by fire. One last drink before heading home. Alicante can now boast of having the first Wetherspoon on the continent, although only travelers who fly will be able to enjoy it. For British tourists, it will be the last sip of home before returning; For the province, further proof of the weight that this market has in its economy. Time will tell if this little pub next to the departure gates is the start of a new European conquest or simply a last pint in the sun before heading home. Image | FreePik Xataka | Years ago Alicante thought it was a good idea to build an artificial island with a luxurious restaurant. It didn’t turn out as I expected

There is a corner of Spain that God has taken a liking to: Alicante, Murcia and Almería

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“In Murcia there has to be a tarp or something, it’s not normal.” It José Montiel said while looking at a map with the rain that is going to fall in Spain in the coming days and the truth is that it is difficult to disagree. In the last few hours, we have had the combination of a trough and a river of humidity that have produced a squall line over the peninsula, leaving in its wake intense winds, considerable rains and many storms. Everywhere, less in the southeast. What happens in Alicante, Murcia and Almería? Strictly speaking, nothing new happens. The southeastern corner of the peninsula has been recording national minimums throughout the modern period. It is enough to look at the stations around Cabo de Gata to discover that the annual accumulations are very low (around 200mm/year) and if we go a little further inland, to Tabernas for example, the figures are only about 50mm higher. Although with enormous irregularity, yes. It is not surprising, therefore, that desertification is devouring that corner of Spain. Nor does the Köppen-Geiger classification indicate that these are the most arid climates in the country (rivaling only some areas of the Canary Islands). But why? There are three fundamental reasons that explain why the southeast of the country receives so little water. The Azores anticyclone: The great Atlantic plug affects a large part of the country, it is true. We must not forget that, according to the latest studies, Spain faces the driest climate in its last 1,200 years and the progressive strengthening of that anticyclone is to blame. However, due to the trajectory of the winds in the northern hemisphere, not all parts of the territory are affected equally. You just have to compare the climate regime of Galicia with that of Murcia. The Betic mountain ranges: Although we sometimes tend to forget it, in the south of Spain there are a series of really high mountain ranges. The highest mountain on the peninsula, in fact, is in the Baetic mountain ranges. These constitute a true orographic wall that intercepts humidity and generates a very long rainfall shadow over the southeastern coast. Come on, the water stays west of the mountains. Evapotranspiration totally uncontrolled: We are talking about an area with very high insolation and very high evapotranspiration. It’s not just that it rains little, it evaporates a lot and that generates a “deserted” terrain that is unable to take advantage of the rains when they arrive. And that, in an area where DANAs are key, is a problem. Everything is getting worse. We might think that all this is normal and yet it is not. We are inserted in a time of changes and IPCC forecasts are gloomy: to the Mediterranean as it is one of the places in the world where the reduction in precipitation is most directly linked to warming. It is estimated a drop of 4% for each degree more in the central and northern Mediterranean. The best example is this same 2025. Despite the historic rains that have occurred this yearthe balance of the southeast will be bad. And, while illegal water trafficking schemes continue to grow, There are initiatives to continue building transfers that they bring to the region the liquid that does not fall from the sky. The problem is that, whether we want to see it or not, we need more far-reaching changes than what we currently seem to be able to assume. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | Long periods of drought are going to become more and more normal. It’s time to get used to them

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