Pep manages the Marjal de Son Fornés farm in Sa Pobla; it is an ecological farm with traditional methods. He has lived all his life by a torrent (the Búger), and he says of torrents that people have come to have a negative perception of them, while not valuing their benefits.
He discusses the widespread practices used for torrent management - clearing them of vegetation and creating concrete walls and, in some instances, torrent beds. Politicians rely exclusively on these practices that, in reality, can cause the opposite to that desired. The speed at which the water flows increases when it doesn't encounter any type of obstacle; the consequences can be potentially catastrophic.
The scientific community has been warning about this for decades. Institutions such as the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications highlighted them again after the floods in Valencia.
Intensive farming, he believes, has been partly to blame. In order to gain space and produce more, woodland by the torrents was destroyed. The roots of the trees had anchored the soil, but the sides of the torrents became eroded. The solution was to use concrete.
Vegetation can accumulate and form dams that end up overflowing and flooding surrounding areas which have been increasingly developed or have lost their capacity to filter water due to the type of agricultural use. Some clearance can be necessary, but it is the interventions, such as the farming practices and the concrete, that are the real source of the problem.
He refers to a form of 'greenphobia', a turning against nature. It became and remains a political obsession. The Balearic Government has trebled investment in torrent management, which persists - in Pep's view - in making the same errors. "We must stop continuing to use the same measures that are useless and cost so much money."
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This is not just in Spain and Mallorca, clearing torrents, but world wide possibly. UK anyway, with ditches, rivers and waterways not being cleared and allowing vegetation, water reeds to grow and natural silt to prevent the good flow of heavy rain water. Then one wonders why there are so many floods. Clearance of waterways is not a sole reason, but it can go a long way to prevent and or lessen flooding.