The municipal water company of Málaga has awarded the drafting of the project to expand the left bank channel of the Guadalhorce River, which includes a floodable park as a solution to flooding.
The Municipal Water Company of Málaga (Emasa) has awarded TPF Getinsa Euroestudios the drafting of the project to expand and extend the left bank channel of the final stretch of the Guadalhorce River. The contract, valued at €235,334.11 (including VAT), has an execution period of nine months and aims to increase the capacity for managing rainwater to reduce the risk of flooding in the area.
Channel expansion and floodable park
The project is based on the preliminary project from 2023 commissioned by Promálaga, which proposes widening the existing channel from the confluence with the Merino stream to the mouth. Additionally, the rainwater collectors will be adapted to discharge into the new infrastructure instead of directly into the riverbed.
As a main novelty, the specifications include the design of a floodable park on the lands adjacent to the channel, within the scope of the future Guadalhorce Mouth Park planned by the General Urban Planning Plan of Málaga. This space will function as a sustainable urban drainage infrastructure, capable of temporarily storing rainwater during intense rainfall episodes.
The action will allow all rainwater from the left bank to stop discharging directly into the river and be channeled to a larger capacity channel.
Nature-based solutions
The future park will be located between the left embankment of the river channel and the business parks on that bank. According to the City Council, these types of infrastructures constitute Nature-Based Solutions (NbS), designed to temporarily store water during storms, reduce urban flooding, and promote biodiversity and landscape integration.
During dry periods, the park can be used by the public as a civic space, although the current project will focus exclusively on hydraulic works. Urban design, pathways, vegetation, and recreational uses will be addressed in a later phase.
The park will include anti-pollution systems that will allow the first runoff waters to be diverted to the unit interceptor collector and subsequently to the EDAR Guadalhorce, where they will be treated.
An integrated flood prevention plan
The action is part of a set of measures coordinated between the City Council of Málaga, the Junta de Andalucía, and the central government to improve flood protection in the final stretch of the Guadalhorce. It adds to other planned interventions, such as the attenuation of floods in the Los Prados lagoon, the channeling of the Merino stream, the improvement of the internal rainwater networks of the business parks on the left bank, and the transfer of the Azucarera, Mayoral, and north of Ortega y Gasset basins to the Merino stream.
According to the City Council, the joint development of these actions will reduce the flood risk in an area that represents approximately 15% of the municipal territory. Additionally, the drafting of the rehabilitation project for the MA-21 bridge over the Guadalhorce River (Azucarera bridge) is underway, a preliminary intervention to the planned widening of its spans by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
The residents of the area, especially those from the neighborhoods near the mouth and the industrial estates on the left bank, will be the main beneficiaries of these works, which will reduce the flood risk that has historically affected this area. The design project will be ready within nine months, after which the corresponding works will be tendered.
You may also like
