Alcudia's councillors for the environment and maintenance, Tomas Adrover and Domingo Bonnin, have met with the regional director-general for biodiversity, Catalina Amengual, to discuss the revival of a project for the Maristany wetland area that was first proposed some twenty years ago.
Maristany is a name given to the port area that comes from "mar" (sea) and "estany" (lake or wetland), the ancient coming-together of the sea and Albufera. After all the development in Alcudia, that in the port itself and the creation of the tourism centre, parts of Albufera remained, one of them being Maristany, which is the area as one approaches the Horse Roundabout from the motorway. The redevelopment of the road system in the 1990s led to further loss of the wetland, and it was then that a project for protecting what remained was first mooted.
Under the former ecotax, a plan that would have cost over nine million euros was developed. It envisaged there being a nature park with an observation centre, much of the cost being because of expropriation. It was never put into effect.
Mayor Toni Mir has told The Bulletin that he wants to improve parts of Alcudia that are entry points to the port and tourism centre, and this would be one of them.