Splashing in the water of the Chíllar river, in Nerja (Málaga, 21,018 inhabitants), is one of the greatest summer pleasures on the eastern Costa del Sol.
Easily accessible, simple slippers allow you to walk eight kilometers along its course between pools and small waterfalls.
There is a special area, the one that crosses the so-called cahorros, where the walk goes through limestone corridors sculpted by erosion.
But its appeal is also its conviction.
The outbreak of nature tourism after the pandemic has increased overcrowding in the natural space, with negative consequences on its biodiversity.
This is what Ecologists in Action and the Nerja City Council have denounced several times, which estimates that there are days where more than 3,000 people gather in the river.
For this reason, the Junta de Andalucía is already working to limit access, with daily quotas for tourists and a parallel path that avoids traveling through the most damaged sections.
"Years ago the number of hikers was manageable, now it has exploded and we must do something," says Mariana Ortí, conservator director of the Sierras de Tejeda Almijara y Alhama Natural Park where this river is located.
The river route has been a traditional alternative to the crowded beaches of summer.
This year, however, has seen an explosion of visitors for two reasons.
On one side, because the activity has been prohibited during the summers of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, until the end of the restrictions made it easier to reopen and many visitors wanted to relive this little adventure.
On the other, the boom in nature tourism, which is crowding places that were quiet years ago.
The Chíllar River is a rural tourism destination that is especially crowded on weekends and in summer.García-Santos
Tourism has returned en masse in search of water that is never lacking thanks to the large surrounding aquifers, which provide a flow all year round —even in the midst of a drought—, a rarity in the province of Malaga.
It is a comfortable hike.
You can see it any morning, with hundreds of people — from children to adults — who cross paths in the narrow corridors of the river.
Or the dozens that swarm in the so-called Ford of the Ducks, a pond that acts as a limit for most visitors.
"There are days when it looks like a fair," says Rafael Yus, spokesman for Ecologists in Action, who points out how numerous hiking clubs from all over Andalusia go to the area, with full buses, during the weekends.
Administrations recognize the problem.
The Provincial Council's own website recommends doing the route "on weekdays, very early" and encourages you to avoid July and August because "times of crowding" occur.
The Ministry of the Environment, for its part, defines the river as "a point of distinguished exoticism in the Axarquia".
"The tourist interest of this path by itself is unquestionable," says the website.
Word of mouth and social networks do the rest, with dozens of photos of visitors in idyllic places that are not really so.
Not only because of the overcrowding, but also because of the accumulated garbage.
In 2017, 450 kilos of waste were removed from the riverbed and thousands of pairs of sneakers that were hanging from the wiring in the area.
Do not give publicity to not die of success
Aware that it could die of success, the Nerja Town Hall hardly speaks of Chíllar.
It no longer mentions it among its attractions.
On its tourism website there are allusions to
Verano Azul
, its beaches or the cliffs of Maro, but the river is rarely mentioned.
The municipality has requested on several occasions the Junta de Andalucía to order the activity.
The last one, last May.
The municipal plenary agreed unanimously.
"With this new initiative we once again ask the competent administration to take the appropriate measures so that, once and for all, access to this space is regulated," explained the Councilor for the Environment, Javier Rodríguez, in a statement denouncing risk of accidents, environmental deterioration and the existence of problems “in the face of possible situations of forest fires”.
So is the complex orography, which makes rescue difficult in the event of an accident.
There are recent examples.
Last June, a 70-year-old woman hit her head in the Ford of the ducks and became unconscious, for which she was transferred on a stretcher for two kilometers by firefighters.
In April, at the same site, another 60-year-old woman broke her wrist and hit her temple.
She, too, was evacuated on foot for a long stretch.
The Andalusian administration "is aware of the situation", explains the conservator director of the Sierras de Tejeda Almijara y Alhama Natural Park, Mariana Ortí, who stresses that the Environment Department "has always viewed Chíllar with great concern".
Ortí assures that he is already working to organize the activity, as is already the case in other regions with the same problems of overcrowding, such as Catalonia.
"The problem is that there are several administrations involved, different regulations and it is not so easy to establish a regulation."
The regulation of the Chíllar river is already underway, which will not be the first in the Natural Park of the Sierras de Tejeda Almijara and Alhama.García-Santos
In addition to the existence of private owners and the municipality —with public forest owned by them—, the Department of the Environment itself is the most competent, both for protected spaces and for its management of the Public Hydraulic Domain.
Quota of visits and entrance
Its staff is already working on regulating the practice of water hiking through a management plan that outlines the areas that can be covered, but also safety areas for possible rescues, places for landing helicopters or shelters against possible forest fires, as well as delimiting sections that cannot be stepped on to favor the conservation of flora and fauna.
There will be a maximum quota of daily visits and access will have an economic cost to cover the expenses generated by said management of the natural space.
"I don't know what definitive formula will be found, but the ideal is to establish a prior reservation, limit the number of people per day and divert the route in the most fragile areas," insists Ortí.
The regulation of the river Chíllar will not be the first in the Natural Park of the Sierras de Tejeda Almijara and Alhama.
On its northern slope, already in the province of Granada, the Junta de Andalucía prohibits walking tours along the riverbeds of all the rivers in the area since the summer of 2021 (although you can walk along its banks when there is a path).
It does so due to “a serious problem of crowding”, according to the Official Gazette of the Andalusian Government (BOJA), which puts species such as the native crayfish —in danger of extinction— or the common trout at risk.
There is only one exception, that of the Verde River, which can be accessed in a section to practice canyoning —under authorization— and another near Otívar, in which, in addition to this sport, the passage of a limited number of people is allowed. per day, established by the available parking spaces next to the riverbed.
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