I don’t know if we are aware that what has happened in Valencia is the biggest catastrophe since the civil war: a territory where 250,000 people live It has literally been ironed. The Mediterranean has weather conditions that indicate that we will continue to have similar processes. In fact, Júcar in Arabic means the devastating one, so what has happened is not a coincidence,” commented Jesús Casas, president of the public company Tragsa during a conference convened these days by the College of Civil, Canal and Port Engineers. Under the name “causes, consequences and solutions”, the Dana of a month ago was analyzed, an episode for which an estimated expenditure of 2.6 billion euros alone is estimated on destroyed infrastructure and waste management.
Another of the speakers, José Luis Santa Isabel, president of Fecoval (Employer organization of construction contractors of the Administration in the Valencian Community), took stock of the situation in which the city is today: «90% of the populations remain to be cleaned and we have only intervened in 0.5% of the industrial areas. There are 30,000 hectares of crops missing; there are no roads, ditches or tool warehouses; 4,500 companies have disappeared and 30,000 jobs have been lost. There are 30,000 buildings affected, which represents 63,000 homes that need to be rehabilitated, and we have lost cemeteries, libraries, 47 schools. We are talking about about 20,000 million in urgent investment. If I remember correctly, in the entire historical series of State investment the highest was in 2007-2008 with 27,000 million. That is to say, all the State’s investment is needed in one year in Valencia alone.
The engineers ask for 42 actions ranging from channeling ravines, reforestation of channels, construction and repair of reservoirs to expansions in drainage infrastructure, selective dredging of lakes, redesign of railways and highways and improvements in treatment plants. In addition, they demand that dam projects such as the Marquesado, Buseo, Montesa, Sellent, Villamarchante and Cheste be resumed. Carmen de Andrés, president of the College’s technical committee on water, energy and climate change, stated that “we live in a country with a very irregular hydrological regime with frequent and recurring periods of droughts and floods. These extreme phenomena are nothing new. In fact, flooding is the most important natural risk in Spain. The government has quantified 2,450 floods in the last 500 years (that’s five per year). In addition, it quantifies the damage at 800 million euros annually. However, we have to go back to the 1990s and early 2000s to see significant investment in hydraulic infrastructure for storage, regulation and flood risk protection. After the 2008 crisis, investment in public works went from 3.3% of GDP to 1.3% of GDP in the following decade. The technique also opened the possibility of applying all types of solutions, concrete ones and solutions based on nature. “It will be a combination of both, but of course what is needed is a plan that defines measures and that is implemented.”
The request of the civil engineers coincides with what the National Federation of Irrigation Communities (Fenacore) made a few days ago and what several agricultural organizations demand. None of them understands why hydraulic works have not been undertaken, which, in some cases, were already in the hydrological plans. Julián Núñez, president of the Association of Construction Companies and Infrastructure Concessionaires of Spain (Seopan), comments that “we have sent a proposal to the Government last week in which we focus only on the Mediterranean, because it is the highest priority we have in Spain for the issue of flooding and climate change, the necessary investment would be reduced to 4,242 million euros. Among the actions that would have to be undertaken, some 64 represent approximately 2,000 million euros. But there is more. We have a dam, which is the Montesa dam, on the Cañones River, which is planned in the flood management plan, but it does not have an execution date. Let us anticipate its execution. Additionally, we have four lamination structures that have been studied in the last 23 years. Some were awarded, such as the Villamarchante dam in the year 61, but due to lack of resources it was never built. Let’s take back those infrastructures.” Another speaker also recalled that “today “Only 50% of the dam emergency plans are approved and only 10% of them are implemented.”
Damage in the field
Some of the missing infrastructure directly affects the countryside. Last week, Fenacore estimated in a report about 300 million losses in irrigation systems alone, hydrants, heads. “The ditches, which have helped to laminate the avenue, are now covered in mud,” says Juan Valero, president of Fenacore, continuing to explain that “vineyards, persimmons, and citrus trees have been lost; Guard houses, control centers, electrical installations have been flooded… The field does not function like other businesses that are stopping billing. Years of investment are lost. For example, in the persimmon crop, one of the most damaged, the trees take 5 years to be productive.
Its report “Plan against Danas” emphasizes that only three out of every ten euros of the investment planned in the previous hydrological plans have been executed, so 29.2% of hydraulic infrastructures of general interest have not been built, despite have been approved in the different basin plans and have their mandatory reports and ask that 3,000 million euros be invested. Specifically, They urge the construction of the 27 dams approved in the hydrological plans and “that a new cost-benefit analysis be carried out on the rejected infrastructures. If we take into account the damage that has caused it to rain more in a while than in an entire year, it is possible that it would have been profitable to invest in that unexecuted hydraulic infrastructure,” Valero clarifies.
The report also highlights the importance of channeling rivers and ravines to modify the natural channel and thus be able to control and direct the flow of water, generally with the aim of preventing floods, protecting nearby infrastructure or adapting the river to specific needs (such as navigation , irrigation or urban land use). “At least in the interior of cities there are channeled canals and protective walls,” says Valero.
Questions still unanswered
For its part, the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja) estimates the damage to the countryside at 1.4 billion euros and recalls that vineyards and persimmons have been lost and that, in addition, the orange harvest is now beginning. A time when there are farmers who cannot even access their farms. «There are no roads, in many cases they are destroyed or impassable. Furthermore, temperatures these days are reaching 21 degrees so irrigation may be needed, but the hydraulic infrastructures are completely destroyed. The government has announced aid, partly through Agroseguros for the losses, which are beginning to arrive, and partly through Tragsa, for reconstruction and works. It was also announced that a table would be formed, but there is a lack of communication. There are farmers who have fruit to pick and the truck can’t arrive and I can’t tell them where to call. or ask on his behalf because there is no one to talk to. There is also concern with the CAP because many request it and that commits them to planting for a few years (more so being within a natural park). Some of them see that next year they may not be able to comply and we cannot answer them anything and that generates a lot of helplessness,” says Jenaro Aviñón, director of AVA (Valencian Farmers Association)-Asaja.