The recent DANA which hit Valencia hard was a turning point for the rest of the autonomous communities, such as Aragon, which see hydraulic works, such as the Yesa reservoir, as a guarantee of security for their citizens. This is why, this Thursday, Jorge Azcón asked the Spanish government to accelerate the famous pending works of the Water Pact, given that, like the Yesa reservoir, “they can avoid disasters.”
He did so before the Cortes of Aragon, during the appearance that he requested at his own request, during which he announced different measures to work on the prevention and response to natural disasters.
“The time has come for us to know the importance of cleaning our rivers, so that we complete the hydraulic works that allow our rivers not to overflow, and so that our emergency services have the means and support necessary in case of problem. “, he expressed.
“The DANA suffered in Spain must make us enter a period of deep reflection,” said Azcón, waiting for “new ideas” to address “the events that will surely occur in the future,” highlighting in which atmospheric phenomena occur today much more frequently than in the past.
Help for DANA
A total of 5 million will be invested to restore normality on the roads and work is also underway to sanitize the drinking water supply system, which in most cases will be ready by the end of the month.
“Health is the priority,” said Azcón, who said everyone’s mouth was watering. The Governing Council approved an aid decree and will mobilize 20 million euros.
Regarding the fact that the municipalities of Aragon are finally part of the national decree-law, Azcón expressed his confidence that this will be the case, recalling the commitment that the government delegate, Fernando Beltrán, has maintained so that it will finally be the case.
The Yesa reservoir
Azcón has prioritized the construction of the necessary hydraulic works, such as the regeneration of the Yesa reservoir, given that it is a “fundamental infrastructure for our autonomous community”. According to Azcón, this reservoir has been essential “so that there is no catastrophe”, and he stressed that if it was not completed, “it would be an extraordinary responsibility”.
“We will deploy our efforts to achieve this,” he said, stressing that in Aragon “the major floods did not lead to major disasters because there were reservoirs that stored the water.”
This is why Azcón asked the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) to finalize and launch the infrastructures in the execution phase “and the new hydraulic infrastructures that regulate the canals rivers.
He also asked the Aragon Ministry of the Interior to once again organize a national emergency exercise like the one carried out in Jaca in 2019.
The Autonomous Firefighters Consortium
Azcón reported that progress has been made in streamlining the Consortium of Autonomous Firefighters for coordination between operations, after approving this year Law 4/2024 (on the civil protection and emergency management system of Aragon) , which establishes that in the period, the Consortium of Autonomous Firefighters must begin operating within 18 months.
“I think it’s an obligation, even if they worked in a very coordinated way, as we had the opportunity to see. “We will implement it to improve coordination,” he defended. Likewise, he also affirmed the need to “promote” a law to coordinate these operations at the national level.
Cleaning of canals and reservoirs
The cleaning of the canals and the construction of the reservoirs were two points on which the PP, PSOE and Vox agreed that they were urgent measures to minimize the effects of DANA.
Although Azcón defended his position in favor of the credibility of the theory of climate change, Vox hardened its position by asserting that “what kills is not the milonga of climate change which is not scientific, but the politics of environmentalists. left not to clean river beds and destroy dams. »
Emergency training
Likewise, Azcón is committed to providing emergency training in Aragon to know how to react to adverse situations, as already advanced by the Ministers of Public Works, Octavio López, and of the Treasury, of the Interior and of Public Administration, Roberto Bermúdez de Castro.
This is a demonstration of the excellent work that the Aragonese operation is carrying out in Catarroja.
A work that, day after day, the neighbors thank us and for which we will never cease to be infinitely grateful. pic.twitter.com/PZa3fKNBCP
– Jorge Azcón (@Jorge_Azcon) November 14, 2024
“We are going to train our leaders in this sense and we are going to promote civil protection days in the regions where we want presidents, regional councils and technicians of civil protection and military exercises to participate,” he said. underlines.
