The government of Madrid decided in May to start a renaturalization project for the river Manzanares. You may argue that on the first sight, this sounds like a good idea. Having seen (and sometimes smelled) that river, dammed up and squeezed between high concrete walls, it's not a wrong thought at all to consider to convert it into a place to live for fish (and if you believe the plans of the activists even otters) again. The bad news are, however, that the naturalization plan seems to consist mainly in opening all locks, which leads to a massive reduction of the water level. El Mundo reports that islands have formed already in the river bed.
The rowing community in Madrid looks back onto a long tradition of rowing on ponds of less than 300 metres in length, but a small creek with green islands does not even serve these masters of improvisation for their daily training.
The rowing school opened only 4 years ago in the frame of the Parque Madrid Rìo project and has it's boat hangar and pontoon ceded for use by the city of Madrid. Although with a length of about a kilometre and a width just big enough to turn around a quad, the section of the Manzanares in Legazpi is still far from being the ideal place to row, it has enabled the competitive rowers of Madrid to prepare successful participations to the national championships. Moreover, a lot of children and adults have learned rowing in the rowing school and have discovered it as their favorite leisure activity.
To me, it sounds like a bad joke that the government of the same city that built a place to row a few years ago, is now simply forgetting about it. (Especially when you are, alike me, living in a country where each public construction project of that size will last for decades because the alleged public good needs to be carefully weighted against the interests of single persons and organizations.)
Does anybody really believe that there can't be a compromise between the interests of the rowers and nature? After all, rowing is not harmful to nature but beneficial for our health and personal development.
Please help my friends to make themselves heard by signing their petition to the mayor of Madrid.
