Malaga flood victims demand action: 'We were fighting against something that was stronger than us'

Juan Soto / Julio J. Portabales

Malaga / Cártama

Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 10:50 | Updated 11:04h.

Another sleepless night for the residents of Cártama town and Malaga's Campanillas neighbourhood. In light of the relentless storms and the overflow of the Guadalhorce and the Campanillas rivers, on Monday 17 March the Local Police and the Guardia Civil evacuated dozens of people, but some residents chose to stay on higher floors of their houses, while the lower levels and garages got flooded with muddy water. The locals demanded proper maintenance of the nearby dams and regular river clean-up efforts in order for future floods to be prevented.

The flood, even though not as destructive, has reminded residents of the one that they experienced in 2020. Memories of damaged movable and immovable assets have kept people awake during the past few nights.

The Cártama districts areas of Doña Ana and Molino Carvajal were the worst hit. Meanwhile, in Campanillas, water and mud rushed into garages and houses in the areas of the main road, Cristobalina Fernández and the Diamante.

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Aurora Junquera, a resident of the Doña Ana neighbourhood, was one of the people who was evacuated. "It rained so much that the whole plot was flooded. We started to take the water out as best as we could, but it suddenly started to come in so fast that I already have more than half a metre in my house," she said.

"It has been a very distressing time," she said, relieved that her daughter and her grandson were not there when the flooding started. They also managed to relocate their four dogs and shelter their horse. Similarly to other residents, Aurora believes that the only solution and preventative measure would be to properly clean the riverbed and warn residents if the floodgates of the reservoirs are going to be opened.

Evacuee Ricardo Cosilla echoed her words, saying that such floods wouldn't occur if the river was maintained in a way that sedimentation and dirt wouldn't stop easy flow. He explained that locals stopped putting fruitless efforts in trying to take water out of their houses around 4am, because they "were fighting against something that was stronger", given the "thousands of litres of water" running through the streets. Ricardo described the feeling of helplessness while watching the knee-deep water inside his house.

The flood suffered in 2020 was more serious, but water has entered houses and business establishments once again this year. As with the previous incident, the most affected areas have been Calle Cristobalina Fernández and the area around the Brillante, where the river overflows and where water accumulates, respectively. To prevent the worst from happening, residents put up planks, sealed doors, placed sandbags and stones. However, this has only spared them half of the disaster.

Miguel Francisco Bueno lives on Calle Cristobalina Fernández. He spent Tuesday morning trying to get water out of his garage, where up to 30 centimetres of mud had accumulated. "Last time, the water came up to the roof and smashed two cars and a motorbike. This time, at least I was able to get the vehicles out," he explained, while draining the water with a hose.

Miguel repeated the demands of his neighbours: "The dam is the problem, because it hasn't rained enough for such floods to happen."

Marina Díaz's hairdressing salon on Calle José Calderón also suffered the consequences, even though the premises are on a fairly high pavement. "(...) the mud has stained everything," she said. Remembering the state of Campanillas in 2020, she said that she "spent the whole night watching the surveillance camera in the street to see if the water had arrived".

Residents started to clean the streets, without waiting for the cleaning services. Tired of the lack of attention and action that institutions have demonstrated in the past, they have taken matter into their own hands. However, they fear that this situation will be repeated can only be alleviated once authorities have taken proper care of the dams and riverbeds.

Cártama mayor Jorge Gallardo said that the river caught them off-guard. "It is the first time that it has been overflowing for so long. The level has not dropped and it has been like this for three or four hours," he said on Tuesday morning. Gallardo said that the town hall had also received calls reporting collapsed walls of houses.

On Tuesday afternoon, Cártama began to see the light at the end of another dramatic episode, taking a deep breath during the respite between storm Laurence and storm Martinho. The latter is expected to arrive on Thursday, bringing more rain.