Not if, but when: how Spain’s coastal towns are preparing for tsunamis

Chipiona is Spain’s first ‘tsunami ready’ community. Photograph: Julián Rojas/The Guardian In the holiday hotspots of the Costa del Sol, the risks are rarely mentioned. But in neighbouring Cádiz, the country’s first tsunami-ready town is leading by example By Ian Wylie in Cadiz and Málaga E ven on a wet, wintry day in Málaga, the Mediterranean looks benign. But only 25 miles (40km) south-west of its port, where half a million tourists disembark from cruise ships into the Costa del Sol each year, lies a system of tectonic plates and faults that fracture the seabed between Spain and north Africa. Earthquakes are routine here. They are mostly too small to notice but sometimes strong enough to rattle glasses in cafes on the seafront. In December, a tremor with a magnitude of 4.9 off the coast of Fuengirola triggered more than 40 calls to Andalucía’s 112 emergency line. No damage was done, but it was a reminder that southern Spain is what scientists call a place of “continuous seismicity”. The Alborán Sea fault system marks the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates. Displacement is slow, but energy accumulates over centuries and, eventually, it is released. The risk of tsunamis is rarely discussed among residents and tourists in the Costa del Sol. Yet only a three-hour drive west of Málaga in the Atlantic-facing town of Chipiona, near Cádiz, the possibility of a tsunami is not whispered but signposted. View image in fullscreen Chipiona assumes that its citizens will have about an hour between an earthquake and a tsunami. Photograph: Julián Rojas/The Guardian Chipiona is a low-key seaside town popular in the summer with holidaymakers from Seville. On Regla beach, Luis Mario Aparcero Fernández, the mayor, points to information boards explaining what a tsunami is and what to do if one is coming. “In the early days, other mayors in our province were not in favour of talking about tsunamis, because we are tourist municipalities,” he says. “But I was able to convince them that we could achieve more tourism through greater safety.” Evacuation routes are marked. Sirens are installed. And each November, at the hour that the huge Lisbon earthquake struck in 1755, schoolchildren calmly walk designated routes inland in a town-wide drill. View image in fullscreen Chipiona’s mayor, Luis Mario Aparcero Fernández, plans to relocate police and other municipal buildings beyond probable flood zones. Photograph: Julián Rojas/The Guardian As a result, Chipiona became Spain’s first “tsunami ready” community in 2024, one of only a handful in the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean region. Cannes, Alexandria and Minturno are the others. This recognition by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of Unesco forms part of a regional goal to establish 25 tsunami-ready communities by the end of this year and prepare all communities at risk by 2030. Francisco Castro, Chipiona’s tsunami-ready coordinator, chooses his words carefully. “Certification does no