More than ten days after Spain’s worst floods in decades, communities are submerged in a sea of sludge and stagnant water, raising health concerns and a foul stench.
“That’s the rotten meat,” said Toni Marco, pointing to a destroyed supermarket in the devastated town of Sedavi from which a disgusting odour wafted when AFP visited.
Marco, a 40-year-old worker for a private cleaning company, adding that the meat had only just been taken out, long after the floods had cut off the electricity to the refrigerators.
Following the October 29 tragedy that killed 219 lives, the adjoining village of Catarroja is still a mud bath, and the suffering of survivors is made worse by a strong stench.
The variety of materials breaking down beneath the dirt results in a range of odours, from slightly disagreeable to downright disgusting.
“Each decomposition of an element smells differently,” which explains why the odours vary from street to street, said Angel Aldehuela, a 51-year-old firefighter from the southern Seville region.
He told AFP that dead animals might possibly be buried beneath the muck.
“That’s where those smells we’re not used to start to appear,” Miguel Rodilla, a scientist at Valencia’s Polytechnic University, noted, as the organic matter in the mud breaks down without oxygen as it dries.
“There aren’t necessarily bodies nearby, but simply organic matter decomposing.”
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