The territorial delegate for Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy, José Antonio Víquez, and the mayor of the Malaga municipality of Alhaurín el Grande, Antonia Ledesma, today visited the area where emergency works have begun for the regeneration of the affected area by the fire declared last July in the Sierra de Mijas.
Víquez has valued “the speed with which the Andalusian Government has started the emergency works”, which seek to prevent the possible rains this autumn from causing landslides that, if they occur, could harm the future regeneration of the forest.
The emergency works will be carried out in the damaged areas of the municipalities of Alhaurín el Grande, Alhaurín de la Torre and Mijas, with an investment of more than two million euros in a public forest area of 612 hectares
In the case of the mountains in Alhaurín el Grande, Víquez has reported that action is already being taken in an area that covers 287 hectares, with an investment of close to 900,000 euros, and he added that the actions will last for 9 months.
The second zone affects 213.44 hectares of the La Mezquita and Puerto Blanquillo public forest, in Alhaurín de la Torre, where an estimated maximum budget of 769,823.15 euros will be invested; while the third area of action, on 111.75 hectares in the municipality of Mijas (in Sierra Blanca and Sierra Bermeja) has a maximum execution budget of 385,255.46 euros.
The works will consist of actions ranging from the elimination of burned trees, pest control, actions aimed at curbing water erosion processes through the creation of stone walls or with remains of wood in small torrents and fajines on the slopes, to the reforestation through the sowing and planting of tree and shrub species.
The risk, which is what has endorsed the emergency declaration of the works, takes on special significance right in the area of the fire, very prone to torrential phenomena due to the generation of isolated depressions in the upper areas of the atmosphere (DANA). A phenomenon that can cause serious damage to people and infrastructure.
For her part, the mayor of Alhaurín el Grande, Toñi Ledesma, expressed satisfaction with the fact that just a month and a half after the fire the emergency works had already begun, at the same time that she highlighted “the speed and interest of the Andalusian Government to act to guarantee the future of our mountain range».