The lessons of the rains in Ibiza

That the majority of Ibizans didn't want the highways in Ibiza, that they weren't necessary, and that an enormous amount of land was consumed because higher interests overrode those of the people, is everyone's knowledge. Those images of Ibiza, which loves the land, facing off against bulldozers, are now part of the collective memory.

What we perhaps didn't know yet is that, on top of that, the technical execution was beyond deplorable. The recent torrential rains in Ibiza have gradually given way to normality almost everywhere, resulting in multi-million-dollar new construction projects being unable to evacuate the water and, on top of that, causing problems in municipal drainage systems, as the mayor of Sant Josep has reported in the case of the highway leading to the airport. Traditional irrigation ditches and pipelines are infinitely more efficient than projects carried out with an aberrant budgetary oversight. So much so that they broke the record for the highest cost increase for a public project in the Balearic Islands.

Now, to resolve this nonsense, public resources will have to be allocated once again to find a way to prevent rain from clogging access to the highway leading to Codolar. Therefore, from the rains of the 29th in Ibiza, we can draw several conclusions, all related. We still don't believe that in flood-prone areas, not only can we not build anything else, but we also need to swell the land to absorb it. And, therefore, instead of more industrial estates, we need more land and vegetation. And the Ibiza highways were one of the most astonishing farces in the recent history of the Balearic Islands.