Beaches along the entire coastline are rapidly eroding. In the northern section of El Mojón beach, the waves are already bouncing off the promenade; Las Higuericas, is retreating grain by grain and in Las Villas, the open areas between the houses and the shoreline is receding, leading to increasing crowding during the summer.
The beaches of La Torre de la Horadada are disappearing, but there seems to be no agreement between any of the administrations to stop it.
In 2021, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition advocated a study to create a new breakwater in El Mojón, to stop the regression attributed to the La Torre marina. The Generalitat, which manages the port, however, does not see it quite so clearly, and is putting out to tender a new study at a cost of more than 160,000 euros, to research other possible causes of sand loss.
The purpose of their study is a consulting contract for “the alteration of the defence works for the protection of the Torre de la Horadada dock and the coastline in Pilar de “La Horadada”.
But central government points to the marina as a possible cause of the regression of the sand, since its breakwater, to the north, and that of the port of San Pedro del Pinatar, to the south, may be affecting the longitudinal movement of sediments across the coastline.
The Generalitat, states that in this new contract, it wants to study other possible triggers for the regression of the beaches, such as the lower contribution that arrives through the mouths of the Seco and Nacimiento rivers, the two largest basins that flow into the Pilareño coastline.
There is also the case of Rambla del Pilar and Rambla de la Raya de Castilla, the final sections of which have been completely concreted and, in the case of de Castilla, there has even been urban development on top of it, which is the cause of recurrent flooding in El Mojón.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition, despite having the project approved since 2021, still has not yet put the works out to public tender. It would include that new breakwater in El Mojón as a possible solution. But the actions now introduced by the Valencian administration should clear up doubts in this regard while the central government continues to sit on its hands.
