ARCHIVED - Camposol rambla issue tops the agenda at meeting between the CHS water authority and Mazarron Mayor

The President of Water Authority (CHS) and Mazarrón Mayor Gaspar Miras held a working meeting on Thursday October 13

The meeting between the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura (CHS), the water authority responsible for the rivers and watercourses in this part of Spain, and the Mazarrón Mayor Gaspar Miras took place at the CHS headquarters in Murcia, and was attended by CHS President Mario Urrea and CHS Commissioner of Water, Francisco Javier García.

Top of the agenda were the viable alternatives for the channelling of the Rambla de los Aznares in Camposol, on which the technicians of the Town Council have been working jointly with those of the water confederation.

The rambla issue has been blighting the Camposol development and causing physical problems as witnessed by the flooding in 2014, since work started on Sector D in 2003, and there has been much finger-pointing and confusion since the constructor Justo y Manoli SL (Grupo MASA) started to build properties on the course of the flood channel bed and protected area which extends 110 metres either side of the rambla.

Over the years the CHS have accused Mazarrón Town Council of allowing developer Justo y Manoli to build villas and infrastructure on the riverbed, which is government land and a natural flood plain, and on October 20 2017, after the Murcia Regional Assembly had started their investigations, the national government attributed responsibility to Mazarrón Town Council for the urbanisation works in the “El Saladillo” Plan Parcial, (Camposol urbanisation) with an accompanying fine of €1,000,000 plus €3,569,239 as compensation for damages to the dry riverbed (rambla) and surrounding government land.

Mazarrón Council appealed against this punishment and in the Supreme Court’s Contentious-Administrative Chamber judgment number 920/2022 dated July 5, 2022, upheld the appeal filed by the Mazarrón Town Council annulling the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of October 20, 2017 and ordering the CHS to pay the costs.

In the Regional Assembly report approved in early 2018 a recommendation was made for a “Round Table” to be set up for the relevant authorities, CHS, Regional Government (CARM) and Mazarrón Town Council to sit down and jointly find a solution to the problem. Although the Round Table was created and approved by Mazarrón Council in August 2019, partly due to COVID and partly due to the lack of response by the two other authorities (CHS and CARM) the first meeting did not occur until July 2022, although CARM did not attend this meeting.

At the July meeting it was decided between the CHS and Mazarrón Council, in the absence of CARM, although the meeting was attended by the Camposol Residents Association, that a solution previously proposed in 2017 known as “Alternative 3” would be adopted and further technical surveys and reports would be carried out and presented at the next meeting arranged for September. This option had been criticised at the time of publication because of the depth of excavation that would have to be carried out in close proximity to adjacent properties.

The September meeting was convened and this time the regional government did attend and put forward “Alternative 4”, which had also been previously presented at a public meeting in May 2019,. In this option the rambla is diverted outside the road infrastructure of the development, and after discussion “Alternative 4” was adopted as the favoured solution pending further reports.

As the saga continues many homeowners of the 600 plus properties situated in the flood plain area will be hoping the threat of flooding will be alleviated and a resolution is closer in the dispute over the land their homes are built on.

Also discussed at last Thursday's meeting were the related flooding in the areas of Bahía and El Castellar in Puerto de Mazarrón and the actions that the council plans to carry out on the rural roads around Benzal, Atalaya and Puntas de Calnegre.

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