Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicentre as grim search moves to coast

Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicentre as grim search moves to coast
By Wafaa ESSALHI, Alfons LUNA
Sedavi, Spain (AFP) Nov 9, 2024

The sea of mud and stagnant water submerging Spanish towns more than 10 days after the country's worst floods in decades has sparked a sickening stench and health fears.

"That's the rotten meat," said Toni Marco, pointing to a destroyed supermarket in the devastated town of Sedavi from which a disgusting odour wafted when AFP visited.

The meat was only removed recently, well after the floods cut the refrigerators' electricity supply, added Marco, a 40-year-old employee of a private cleaning company.

The nearby town of Catarroja also remains a mud bath after the October 29 disaster that has claimed 219 lives, with a powerful reek compounding the woes of survivors.

The diversity of matter decomposing under the mud produces a spectrum of smells ranging from the mildly unpleasant to the outright repulsive.

"Each decomposition of an element smells differently," which explains why the odours vary from street to street, said Angel Aldehuela, a 51-year-old firefighter from the southern Seville region.

Dead animals may also lie buried under the mud, he told AFP.

When the mud dries, the organic matter decomposes without oxygen and "that's where those smells we're not used to start to appear," explained Miguel Rodilla, a biologist at Valencia's Polytechnic University.

"There aren't necessarily bodies nearby, but simply organic matter decomposing."

- Smell 'will get worse' -

In scenes reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic, rescuers, volunteers and residents have worn facemasks and gloves during the clean-up, while some people have complained of the stink causing headaches and dizziness.

Breathing in the pestilential miasma "isn't ideal for health", but "higher concentrations" of decomposing matter would be necessary to make it toxic, said Rodilla.

Stagnant water can trigger gastrointestinal disorders or pneumonia, Health Minister Monica Garcia told public radio RNE, but she ruled out the possibility of an "outbreak".

The health board of the Valencia region, particularly crippled by the floods, has also reported no outbreak of infectious diseases or a major threat to public health.

Even so, regional health authorities have asked local councils to apply measures to control and prevent the proliferation of mosquitoes and other insects capable of spreading diseases.

Aldehuela warned that the foetid fumes enveloping Catarroja "will get worse, without a doubt", predicting they would linger for up to a week more.

But in towns where the muck has been cleared swiftly, an aroma of bread or fruit has replaced the stench, the head of the army's emergencies unit Javier Marcos said on Friday.

Spain's grim search for flood missing moves to coast
Valencia, Spain (AFP) Nov 8, 2024 - Spanish navy diver Alvaro Carrillo donned his wetsuit and prepared a speedboat to scour a normally picturesque lagoon made murky by a sea of debris -- and potentially bodies.

As rescuers painstakingly seek victims of Spain's deadliest floods in decades in inland towns and fields, Carrillo's team is shifting the hunt for the dozens of missing to the coast.

The torrential downpours on October 29 -- which in some places dumped a year's worth of rain in hours -- have swept detritus towards estuaries and beaches.

Three bodies have been found on the usually idyllic beaches facing the Mediterranean Sea, according to Spanish media.

The authorities -- heavily criticised for their handling of the catastrophe and confusing information on the number of dead and missing -- have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

But an emergency unit involved in the rescue told AFP on condition of anonymity that at least one body has been discovered in the sea.

Carrillo and his 20-strong team set out at the crack of dawn on the Albufera lagoon in the eastern Valencia region that has suffered almost all the devastation and 219 deaths.

The lagoon lies at the heart of a natural park where thousands of migratory birds shelter in the winter and restaurants serve paella to nature lovers who can explore its pristine waters by boat.

But its 2,700 hectares (6,670 acres) of shallow fresh water were almost opaque when AFP visited after the floods dragged in cars, furniture and mounds of reeds.

The poor visibility is the "trickiest" part of the team's work, but they would keep going "as long as the daylight allows", sub-lieutenant Carrillo, 26, told AFP.

- Sea of reeds -

Spain has dispatched more boats to the coast and increased its diving teams sixfold, Javier Marcos, head of the army's emergencies unit, told reporters on Friday.

Divers from the regional fire service and the Civil Guard were also taking part in the disaster zone, AFP journalists saw.

Firefighters struggled to remove reeds that had jammed open a lock, allowing the lagoon's contents to drift into the Mediterranean.

"It's sad, but it makes complete sense that they're looking here," said Jose Torrent, a pensioner from Valencia who often strolls around the lagoon.

The regional emergency committee overseeing the rescue said on Thursday that radars and special equipment were being used to chart the waters.

To the east of Albufera lies the isolated El Saler beach, another popular beauty spot now buried under piles of reeds scattered by the raging tides.

Local council workers hoisted a red flag to dissuade potential bathers from the beach, which like others in the region has been sealed off.

But the lagoon often swells to match the rising water levels during storms and bears few physical scars compared with the scenes of desolation surrounding it.

"The only visible damage is in the fishermen's nets," said Gregorio Ortega, 66, pointing towards some stakes to which clung nets used to capture eels.