The DANA not only left flooded streets and material damage. En l’Albufera, el golpe fue doble: por un lado, la entrada masiva de agua con sedimentos y arrastres; por otro, la llegada de residuos y contaminantes desde barrancos, acequias y zonas urbanas e industriales conectadas al sistema hídrico. El resultado fue una presión brutal sobre un humedal que ya vivía un equilibrio delicado.
Rebuilding l’Albufera does not mean “leaving it as it was” (which is often not even possible), but rather restoring its ecological functions and strengthening its resilience so that when the next cold drop arrives, the damage will be less and the response will be quicker.
What happens to l’Albufera after a cold drop?
After a flood like this, the main problems tend to occur in succession:
Accelerated sedimentation: the lake can receive in hours what would normally accumulate over decades. This changes the lake bed, channels and water dynamics.
Rubbish and plant debris: reeds, plastics, bulky items, etc. get caught in ditches and on riverbanks, creating ‘blockages’ that worsen water circulation and quality.
Risk of point source contamination: sewage, oil or chemicals carried in by the event. The priority here is to stop leaks and control critical points.
Impact on rice fields and biodiversity: if the system is altered too much, side effects appear (fish mortality, habitat loss, changes in birds, etc.).
That is why real reconstruction combines construction work, cleanup, ecological restoration, and monitoring over months (or years).
The 4 real phases of a ‘well-done’ reconstruction
1) Emergency: remove whatever is blocking and threatening
The first step is to remove the obvious: waste, debris and accumulations. In l’Albufera, specific operational teams have been mobilised to remove waste from ditches, canals and sensitive areas, with public data on volumes and sections treated.
Objective: to allow the system to ‘breathe’ again: circulate water, reduce risks and prevent accumulated waste from degrading and worsening the quality of the lake.
2) Tackle the problem at its source (watersheds, ravines, and sanitation)
The second phase is less visible, but it is the one that truly changes the future: acting upstream.
Enter here:
Removal of ‘blockages’ in waterways and restoration of public waterways.
Improvements to drainage and bottlenecks.
Reinforcement of sanitation/purification to prevent sewage from entering after extreme events.
Objective: to ensure that the same thing does not happen again during the next event.
3) Ecological restoration: it is not cleaning, it is recovery
Once the urgent issues have been stabilised, it is time to tackle the important ones: restoring processes (not just ‘appearance’).
This includes:
rebalancing areas that have been silted up or altered by sediments,
working with native vegetation and controlling invasive species (reeds are a classic example in these scenarios),
restoring margins and habitats that support biodiversity.
Objective: to restore the wetland to its proper function as a wetland, not as a degraded canal.
4) Monitoring: measure, correct and learn
Without data, there is no recovery. That is why serious plans include monitoring parameters (oxygen, ammonium, etc.) and checking sensitive points to adjust actions if something goes wrong.
Objective: to avoid fixes that will not withstand the next episode.
Investment, coordination and the big challenge: governance
In addition to resources, coordination is needed. In recent months, there has been talk of restoration plans with dedicated investment and the need to integrate l’Albufera into broader strategies for resilience to DANAs, precisely because the problem does not stop at the lake: it starts outside.
And here we come to the critical point that many experts repeat: it is not enough to repair, we must manage the entire system better (basin, land use, infrastructure, water quality and planning).
The reconstruction of l’Albufera after the DANA is a major undertaking: immediate cleanup, yes, but above all restoration and prevention. What is done now will determine whether the park truly recovers or is merely “patched up” until the next storm.
