Arenal residents express discomfort over effects of dredging of La Fontana canal

Friday 11th February 2022 – MIKE SMITH
Translated form an original article on Xàbia AL DÍA

Residents in the Arenal zone of Xàbia have expressed their concerns and discomfort about the unhealthy effects that are being generated by the dredging work that is being out in the La Fontana canal.

In a statement, they explain that a boat has been operating for a week in the canal, removing seaweed and debris that has accumulated on its bed, depositing it in a large pool that has been dug in the nearby sand for this purpose.

This extracted debris on the beach is what is generating the greatest discomfort amongst the residents of the popular beach zone and they consider that it is an activity that “endangers the health of the area, being a source of bad odours in the entire environment, including the Parador de Turismo”.

The residents in the area said that they don’t understand “how so many litres of dirty water can be dumped on a beach that has been awarded a blue flag status for so many years” and that it seems “impossible that such an operation has been authorized”.

They have approached the operators who have been working on the dredging tasks and have been told that all municipal and environmental permits are in place and that the councillor for Beaches has been personally supervising the operation.

Thus, the residents say that the smell of this pond filled with extracted debris from the canal only adds to their suffering which has already been stretched by the pollution created by the Ramblars fire. “In the mornings, the cold stagnates the smell of smoke from the landfill in the area and then when the wind blows from the sea, the smell of hundreds of tons of mud extracted from the canal enters homes”. They conclude that living with these two objectionable fronts has become very difficult in recent days.