Around Deltebre, the rice fields create a mosaic of water and mud. The river meanders between canals and banks, and the Delta's light floods everything with a metallic sheen. It is in one of these wetlands that a unique rice variety is born: the only long-grain, aromatic rice cultivated in the Ebro Delta, known as Essència del Delta. It is grown, managed, and marketed by the Women Rice Growers of the Ebro Delta, a cooperative of five women who have made the land their livelihood. The result is a fine, fluffy, and versatile rice—perfect for salads, stir-fries, and celebratory rice dishes—but also a product imbued with values: respect for the environment, a deep connection to the land, pride in being women who preserve the craft, and the dedication that rice cultivation entails.

Today we talk about building and rebuilding. To start, in the Terres de l'Ebre.

"Today, concern for agricultural lands is taking a backseat, because the evil is inside our homes," explains Elda Roda, a resident of Godall, a town that was a bustle of people carrying tools to remove mud from the ground, clean warehouses, remove furniture, and assess the ravine. But this doesn't stop those who make their living from agriculture from also being on alert. Most farmers in the area have been unable to access their farms to conduct a precise assessment of the damage, but they already sense that the rains have destroyed large areas.

Manel Grifoll leads the Maritime Engineering Laboratory at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He is an expert in oceanic processes and the formation of certain meteorological phenomena such as storms. He insists that they are not uncommon on the Catalan coast, but emphasizes that they are now much more intense. And he explains why. "We can't fight climate change; what we must do is have roadmaps and policies that allow us to adapt to them," he emphasizes.

The showers have returned, the floods, the overflowing ravines in Terres de l'Ebre, especially in Montsià, but also in Baix Ebre, Ribera d'Ebre, Baix Camp, and Terra Alta. Flooded houses, garages, and basements, unpaved streets...

The Terres de l'Ebre and Alt Empordà are at "extreme" risk of fire this Monday, warned the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. With temperatures above 33 ° C and the forecast of the entry of the mistral wind, up to 45 municipalities of Alt Empordà (19), Baix Camp (10), Baix Ebre (6), Priorat (6) and Ribera d'Ebre (4).

On Monday night, in prime time, TV3 broadcast the first episode of the series Delta Aquaterra. One of the protagonists, the captain of a cruise ship along the mouth of the Ebro, rudely tells a journalist: "Only come down when you smell our shit!" And the journalist remains silent, aware that the blunder is not without reason. The fiction is set in the Baix Ebre and, as a twist of fate, the premiere coincided with the fires in the interior of the same region. The coincidence implied a certain irony. The Terres de l'Ebre have always lamented feeling forgotten by institutions and the media and have been criticizing for years a news bias that focuses more on the north than the south of the country. The day TV3 took the prime time one thriller Taking place in this area of marshes and marinas, reality demanded a different kind of on-the-ground television presence. A media paradox that, in critical moments like a large-scale fire that forces the population into confinement, provokes tension and unrest.

Your last book, Down here, in which you talk about the Ruta del Bakalao, takes place on the Mediterranean coast, but the wine element never appears. Why do you think it doesn't fit in with that setting?

After years of setbacks, the Tortosa City Council and the Generalitat have found a plan B to locate the University Hospital of Terres de l'Ebre in a new area with no risk of flooding and larger than initially planned. This Thursday, the Regional Minister for Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, signed a protocol with the Mayor of Tortosa, Jordi Jordan, by which the Generalitat (Catalan Government) commits to guaranteeing the urban planning procedures to facilitate access to the new hospital center that will be built in Raval de la Llet, in the Sant Llàtzer neighborhood.

Work to seal and remove the Castor, the underwater natural gas reservoir launched in 2012 by the company Escal UGS off the coast of Vinaròs, will begin in the next three months, according to sources at Enagás, the company in charge of carrying out the work, explained to the newspaper ARA. The first step to unblock this operation, which has been delayed for years, will be the arrival of the jack-up, which is the jack-up platform that will be installed next to the Castor and from where the work to seal the wells will be carried out. This task will take eight months, according to estimates and if nothing goes wrong, and will cost 76 million euros.

Everything was planned, and also purchased. The chosen destination was Tenerife, and the price per student was around 200 euros. It was the end-of-year trip for the 4th year ESO class of the Perelló institute, a town with less than 3,000 inhabitants in the Baix Ebre region. But it all ended up being a scam that reached 5,000 euros. The travel agency chosen to plan the trip was Viatges Albada Tours, based in L'Ametlla de Mar. Its motto is: "Your trusted travel agency." The owner of the company, a 50-year-old man, ended up arrested last Thursday by the Mossos d'Esquadra for a crime of fraud.

The residents of Les Cases d'Alcanar have been cut off from communication in one of the heaviest water downpours in recent times. Trafalgar Street, located at the beginning of the coastal town, has become a muddy ravine that has flooded the roads, houses, car parks and has taken cars, chairs and everything that it has found with it. The Wednesday waterspout also caused chaotic scenes, as explained by Quique Queralt, a resident of Les Cases d'Alcanar: "This has never been seen before. All the vehicles parked at the top of the village have appeared on the promenade; even in the sea. It took me more than two hours to get home; the road between La Ràpita and Les Cases was impossible because of the falling rocks".