- ‘Canya a la canya’ is a project developed by the Consorci de La Ribera and the Limne Foundation in 13 municipalities in the lower Xúquer basin.
- The project is supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
4 December 2024. – The ‘Canya a la Canya’ project, coordinated by the Consorci de la Ribera and the Limne Foundation, has assessed the damage caused by the DANA to the programme’s activities, an ambitious project within the framework of the National River Restoration Strategy, which aims to conserve and improve nearly 75 km of urban sections of the Xúquer River, between the towns of Sumacàrcer and Cullera.
Since 2022, the project has been carrying out numerous actions to remove invasive reeds from the banks of the municipalities involved, using river restoration strategies that strike a balance between restoration and flood risk management.
The cold drop a month ago affected activities that had not yet been completed, aimed in one way or another at the removal of invasive species, but also at the recovery of river areas and the elimination of longitudinal and transverse barriers and obstacles within the Public Water Domain. One of the initial objectives of the project was to increase the hydraulic capacity of certain sections of the riverbed, adapting land adjacent to the river to improve drainage in the event of extraordinary floods.
The entities and administrations involved in the project reaffirm the need to continue managing colonising plants with poor hydraulic behaviour, such as common reed (Arundo donax), which end up blocking the river or causing many other problems. ‘Reeds are an invasive species that cause serious problems on riverbanks by creating a barrier that concentrates the energy of the flow within the riverbed, which can lead to excessive erosion and the collapse of the banks during floods,’ says Sales Tomàs, director of the Limne Foundation. ‘During catastrophic events such as the DANA, reeds are quickly uprooted and can accumulate to form dams, blocking bridges and preventing structures from functioning properly, causing serious problems that would be mitigated by a native riparian forest in better condition and, obviously, giving more space to the river, respecting the floodplain.’
Flood and hazard maps are clear: risk increases when urban growth compromises natural drainage and, on the other hand, increasing impervious cover reduces the infiltration capacity of the soil. The affected basins have a high degree of impermeability and extensive urban development within the floodplain, which obstructed and concentrated the flow in areas where the water should disperse naturally, increasing the danger of flooding and its degree of devastation.
After assessing the damage to the sections of action, ‘Canya a la canya’ will resume its schedule and continue with the planned actions of the project, such as the transformation of abandoned farmland into river drainage areas, the stabilisation of banks and the fight against the presence of reeds, although they point out that they will allocate a series of actions and interventions aimed at strengthening citizen participation, i.e. involving the neighbourhoods of the areas of action in decision-making processes on the actions to be carried out or generating debate on current land use planning.
The president of the Consorci de la Ribera, Josep Mur, added, ‘We must be aware that water will always seek its natural outlet in times of flooding and, in a context of climate change, with increasingly frequent and intense flooding, it will be necessary to address new models of water governance and management, respecting the riverbed and, whenever possible, more space to rivers and ravines, with the necessary restrictions in the floodplain.’ He continues, ‘I would also like to call on other institutions to carry out projects similar to “Canya a la canya” on more rivers in the region, such as the Magro River, which has suffered greatly from the accumulation of this cane, blocking many places where water could pass and even destroying public infrastructure such as bridges and roads.’
This proposal benefits from a call for grants, promoted by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), for the restoration of river ecosystems and the reduction of flood risk in urban environments, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.