When the Poyo Ravinethe water devastated everything in its path as it flowed along a highway at high speed and flooded towns where almost no rain had fallen due to DANA.
A disaster of this magnitude leaves us wondering what we can do to avoid a similar tragedy. Canalizing rivers or clearing their channels of vegetation, as so many municipalities do, does not seem like a good idea.
“If we leave a channel without vegetation, it is very likely that we will have more speed and therefore more destructive power”» declares Pau Fortuño, researcher at CREAF.
Ontinyent, also in Valencia, suffered a huge flood in 2019, and the town hall learned its lesson. “A neighborhood that had been flooded was demolished and replaced by a flood-prone park,” remembers Alfredo Ollero, professor at the University of Zaragoza.
This park, with a large water retention capacity, occupies the place where houses once stood. “We will need areas and spaces with greater biodiversity because they absorb water very well compared to concrete, which carries water and everything that comes with it,” explains Miguel Aguado, environmental broadcaster.
The Marjal del Alicante is capable of storing up to 45 cubic meters of water. Channels and banks should also be expanded. A rainwater basin like this one, located in Madrid, collects water from collectors in the event of heavy rain. Small towns like Tomares, in Seville, have theirs. But the most serious thing is to have built where it should not have been.
“We have invaded the canals, We built where we shouldn’t, we built infrastructure without considering what might happen“, comments Alfredo Ollero. And this will be the most difficult thing to rectify. Entire cities cannot be moved, but as he adds, “there will be other places that will have to be abandoned or infrastructures that we will have to design differently ” Because science warns that .DANA is increasing in frequency and intensity.
