In Alicante, it never rains, but it pours. The city in southeast Spain goes without rain for months on end, but when it comes, it’s torrential, bringing destructive and sometimes fatal flooding – or, at least, it used to.
In San Juan, a low-lying area of the city, authorities have built a new park with a twist. Called La Marjal, it serves as a typical recreation area and a nature reserve – but its primary purpose is to store, and then recycle, rainwater. In function, it resembles an aljibe, a technique developed by Arab residents of Spain many centuries ago in which rainwater is collected and stored in a kind of cistern underneath a building. La Marjal does a similar job, but outdoors.
The water is also then diverted to a nearby treatment plant where it can subsequently be used to clean streets and water parks. In southern Spain, where water is increasingly becoming a scarce resource, the aljibe represents a brilliant solution to water management.
