09/12/2004 00:00
TW
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By Humphrey Carter NEIGHBOURS in Puerto Pollensa are blaming the new by-pass for all the Bank Holiday flooding. Last Saturday, the port suffered severe flooding as an average of 100 litres of rain fell per square metre and, since then, each time it has rained the sea-side town has been hit by more flooding.


Neighours in the port said yesterday that they are used to heavy rains, especially at this time of the year, but this is the first year the port has been flooded and many are pointing their fingers at the new by-pass which was opened in May. “We are beginning to wonder if flood water run-off and drainage was taken into account when the road was planned,” one mystified resident said yesterday.

For the first time in at least 40 years, shops and businesses along the main road from Pollensa through the port have been flooded. Traders suspect that the main reason is because the by-pass has blocked many of the old torrentes and the natural water run-off system. Yesterday home owners were still clearing up after four days of flooding - on some properties even the swimming pools overflowed and spilled into the houses.

But the main question being asked is why the main street and even the main square where the church is, were flooded for the first time in the best part of 40 years.

In the past, flood water has run down the torrentes (river beds) and into the sea, “but this has been the new by-pass's first winter and it appears to be the root of the flooding,” a resident who fortunately lives north of the new road told the Bulletin yesterday.

Between Friday and Tuesday morning, 208 litres of rain fell per square metre in the Pollensa area, in Palma, just 25.5 litres per square metre were recorded.