The Minister of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy of the Junta de Andalucía, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, announced this Friday an imminent execution of emergency works to mitigate the forest hydrological risk in the area affected by the fire in the Sierra de Mijas Last July, some work will begin immediately and more than two million euros will be invested to work on a public forest area of 612 hectares.
Fernández-Pacheco has highlighted “the importance not only of firefighting tasks, but also those of prevention and citizen awareness, in addition to the forest recovery of the affected areas”. This last section includes the work that, declared an emergency, will start in the next few days to restore damage and try to minimize erosive processes generated by the action of future precipitation.
The autumn and winter rainsafter the sudden loss of vegetal cover derived from the fire, could generate serious erosive effects and floods in the watersheds, in addition to carrying risks of sudden fall of trees affected by the fire, includes the resolution of the General Directorate of Forest Policy. Something, the counselor has insisted, especially critical in the land closest to the network of roads, paths and walkable trails.
The works will consist of performances ranging from the removal of burned trees, pest controlactions aimed at slowing down the processes of water erosion through the creation of stone walls or with remains of wood in small streams and fajines on the slopes, to the reforestation through seeding and planting of tree and shrub species.
The risk, which is what has endorsed the emergency declaration of workstakes on special significance right in the area of the fire, very prone to torrential phenomena by the generation of isolated depressions in the upper areas of the atmosphere (DANA), a phenomenon that can cause serious damage to people and infrastructure.
The works planned in framework of this action have been divided into three zones (each in one of the three affected municipalities) with the aim, the counselor pointed out, of carrying them out “quickly and safely” in a total area of 612.36 hectares. The works, which will begin immediately and simultaneously, will have a maximum execution period of 9 months and they have been awarded through the public lottery procedure with an invitation to 26 companies, although 20 were finally selected.