The wave of water and mud that, according to the latest estimates, caused more than 210 deaths and 89 missing in the province of Valencia (Spain), on Tuesday, October 29, awakened a trauma buried in the memory of the city’s inhabitants. On October 14, 1957, two consecutive floods of the Turia River, which was still crossing the center of the city to flow into the Mediterranean, poured millions of cubic meters of water into the streets, causing the death of 81 people.
The media of the time spoke of “apocalyptic scenes”, houses knocked down by the waves and bridges torn away by the current. “I was 17 years old. The streets were rivers. The water crossed the first floor of the houses. We had to travel by boat, recalls José Andujar, 84 years old, president of the Levante Irrigation Community, in Valencia. After that, Franco [alors chef de l’Etat espagnol] He made the decision, against the advice of the Valencians, to divert the Turia and its mouth further south, towards highly coveted lands, where the best orange trees were located… In the end, he saved many lives on October 29. »
All experts agree that the diversion of the Turia helped save the city center of Valencia from disaster seventy years ago. The “Plan Sur”, a colossal hydraulic engineering program implemented between 1958 and In 1969, Franco modified the course of the river by thirteen kilometers, from Quart de Poblet to the sea, to surround the city to the south and increase its drainage capacity. Infrastructure built upstream was used to contain floods; Among them, the Forata dam allowed nearly 30 cubic hectometers of water to be retained on October 29.
The old Turia channel has been preserved, transformed into large gardens and promenades, where the City of Arts and Sciences designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava is located, while the new one has absorbed a flow of almost 2,000 cubic meters per second ( metro3/s), without overflowing. “Diverting the river and increasing its drainage capacity worked”recognizes geologist Antonio Aretxabala, an expert in natural disasters. “The Turia conduit, made by excavating the natural terrain without creating a barrier to water coming from the south, saved the city of Valencia from a much greater tragedy. The recorded flow remained well below the capacity of the new canal, which reached 4,500 m3/s”, says Miguel Ángel Carrillo, president of the college of civil engineers.
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