Benalmádena cleans more than 10,300 storm drains between January and August

The Benalmádena City Council, through the municipal company Emabesa, maintains a storm drain cleaning campaign throughout the year to prevent drainage problems during rains. According to the statement issued by the City Council, between January and August a total of 10,303 storm drains have been worked on. The work consists of removing accumulated sediment and waste, cleaning the grates and checking that they function correctly. Afterwards, the extracted waste is loaded, transported and deposited at authorised sites. The crews are organised by sectors of the municipality and generally proceed following the direction of the basins, from downstream to upstream. The manual cleaning teams are usually made up of two workers, a vehicle with a sealed compartment for solids, specific tools and the necessary signalling equipment. This year's programme establishes two periods of more intense work: one in February and March, and another in July and August, the latter designed to prepare the network before episodes of heavy rain that can occur after summer. For the rest of the year, the cleaning of another 5,610 storm drains is planned, with an estimated average of 66 actions per working day. Specifically, the planning includes 1,452 actions in September, another 1,452 in October, 1,386 in November and 1,320 in December. If this schedule is met, the municipality will close the year with close to 15,913 storm drains cleaned, within the forecast of reaching close to 16,000 throughout 2026. The Councillor for Cleaning and the Environment, Juan Olea, has explained that cleaning the storm drains "is a fundamental maintenance and prevention task, especially ahead of episodes of heavy rainfall, because the accumulation of leaves, soil and other waste can hinder water drainage". The councillor added that "we are not talking about one-off actions, but about a programme that is carried out in a continuous and planned way". Olea gave a press conference accompanied by Emabesa's managing director, Enrique Moya, in which he also asked for citizen collaboration to avoid the dumping of waste on public roads that could end up blocking grates and storm drains.