The Faes Foundation, chaired by the former president Jose Maria Aznar, defends the measures of the National Hydrological Plan (PHN) approved in 2001 by Aznar himself in the face of the floods in Valencia which caused more than 200 deaths.
An article published by Faes indicates that this plan “provided for actions in all basins, and singularly in Júcar“, such as “the restitution and adaptation of the natural channels of the Torrente, Chiva and Pozalet ravines or the restitution and adaptation of the natural channels of the Poyo ravine”.
Precisely, some of these works were subsequently paralyzed with the PSOE in power. In 2021, the Government chaired by Pedro Sanchezwith Therese Ribera As Minister of Ecological Transition, she stopped the “piping and drainage” of the Poyo and Saleta ravines, where DANA left some of its deadliest effects.
According to Faes’ analysis, “the socialist Executive which succeeded him [al Gobierno de Aznar] repealed the plan based more on ideological than prudential considerations.Sometimes, in our public conversation, the politician is confused with the partisan, with the flag or the sectarian,” the text adds.
This is why the foundation chaired by Aznar emphasizes that “it will always be cheaper to invest in dams than to compensate for floods“Faes argues that through his actions these consequences could have been avoided.
The analysis is titled “Learning More Than One Lesson.” And that lesson, according to Faes, should be to “get to work now; to the work of updating and expanding dams, canals and transfers in all Hydrographic Confederations”, so that it doesn’t repeat itself in the future, which will take us a long time to stop regretting.
Refusal of the PSOE
“The PHN has never been confronted with a real alternative in terms of hydrological policy, but simply with a sectarian refusal wrapped in so-called environmentalist pretexts“, specifies the text of the foundation.
According to this version, the proposals for this national plan were frozen by the central government as well as by the Valencian Autonomous Executive of Compromís for undocumented “climatic” reasons.
“Let us not confuse science with Ms. ‘Science’ by Sánchezhypostatized in the socialist imagination like a midwife with a party card”, adds the text.
Concerning the management of DANA, Faes emphasizes that “the central government has remained, for too long, inexplicably absentunconscious of the immediate reaction imposed by circumstances”
“A national crisis demands a unit responseas we asked here. The Spanish government does not need to wait for any regional request to respond to a tragedy occurring in Spain,” underlines the Aznar Foundation. A position that the PP has also defended during these two weeks.
