Seven years after the flood: Sant Llorenç starts flood protection — why it's creaking now

Seven years after the flood: Sant Llorenç starts flood protection — why it's creaking now

Spring 2026: Excavators rumble on the edge of Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, workers wear helmets, and the sun already beats mildly down on the plaza. The central question is: Why does the reconstruction on the torrent only begin seven years after the flood of 9 October 2018 — and why does it now cost more than twice the originally planned amount?

Critical analysis

A comprehensive intervention in the area of the torrent is planned: larger culverts beneath the road, increased discharge capacity and reinforced riverbanks so the water does not overflow. These measures sound technically sensible. Problematic is the long delay: the project was once estimated at around 4 million euros, and now about 9 million are being mentioned. The doubling of costs raises questions — about planning, risk assessment and transparency.

Lengthy approval procedures, possible changes in project scope and rising construction prices can be reasons. In addition, complex environmental assessments and coordination with road and utility operators are often involved. But seven years is a long time in which those responsible could have acted to break down risks and costs or implement interim measures: temporary retention areas, improved warning systems, maintenance of the stream bed. Similar long waits have affected other local projects, for example Fornalutx secures slippery slope — why the wait took so long.

What is missing from the public debate

People talk about walls and culverts, but not enough about maintenance, everyday responsibility and long-term landscape solutions. Who will take care of sediment removal in the stream in the future? How will agricultural drainage and private inflows that burden the system be regulated? And who will be liable if new elements fail? These questions are often hidden behind the construction cost figures. That question is addressed in local reporting such as After the Rain: Who Cleans the Streams — and Is It Enough?.

A scene from everyday life in Sant Llorenç

At the market stall on Carrer Major, neighbors discuss construction fences while children play football on the pavement. An older woman says quietly that she still has the fear in her bones from the storm in 2018: "Back then the water came so fast, we had no time." Such voices show: technology is necessary, but trust must be rebuilt. Visible, short-term protective measures could have given people a sense of security earlier.

Concrete approaches

1) Active planning check: Publish an independent review of the cost increase — where do the additional 5 million come from? That creates trust.
2) Interim measures: Temporary retention tanks, mobile dams at sensitive points and maintenance of the stream bed reduce acute risks until completion.
3) Define responsibilities: Clear duties for maintenance, sediment management and control of private inflows in a publicly accessible agreement.
4) Expand early warning systems: Local alarm chains linked to SMS or siren systems, and regular evacuation drills in the villages along the stream.
5) Consider landscape-oriented solutions: Retention areas in the upper catchment and renaturation strips that hold water back instead of only accelerating it.

Punchy conclusion

The start of construction work is important — but it is not the end of the debate. The numbers and the delay are a reminder that large infrastructure projects must not only be planned but also explained and maintained. Sant Llorenç needs not only walls and pipes but transparency, clear responsibilities and measures that already provide a tangible sense of security. Otherwise the perception will remain: we build expensively and slowly — and people still feel unprotected.