Mazón will modify the Huerta de Puig law which blocks the work of the ravines which overflowed because of the DANA

According to experts, the works planned for years to divert water from the two boulevards to the new canal of the Turia River would have minimized the damage caused by the DANA of October 29, which devastated dozens of municipalities in the province and cost lives. more than 200 people.

Mazón’s project, as sources from the Generalitat confirmed to EL ESPAÑOL, is to retouch the articles of the regulation on the Valencian garden approved by the government of Ximo Puig which prevent the launch of the two projects.

Concretely, they will be reformed sections 24 and 41 so that the legislation is more flexible and the reports of the Huerta Council in matters of urban planning, until now obligatory and binding, are not necessary.

He Garden advice is a newly created autonomous body, composed of different advicethe Provincial Deputation of Valencia, the Town Hall of Valencia, agricultural organizations and garden defense entities.

With these changes, according to these sources, the Orchard Council would be deprived of town planning powers and would only have competence in agricultural matters.

In these moments, Their reports on the improvements to be made in the Poyo and Saleta ravines are unfavorableeven if the technicians recognized that it was urgent to avoid flooding.

When these changes to the regulations are approved, the two projects will be unblocked and, according to the sources consulted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition would have no excuse not to execute them.

Blocked projects

In the Plan of Flood risk management of the Júcar hydrographic demarcation 2022-2027 (PGRI)published in January 2023, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) had already recognized that at least two major works were necessary and seven other major actions that “have never been carried out” on these boulevards.

It’s about “environmental adaptation and drainage project for the Poyo basin on the Albufera side (Valencia)” and that of “greenway connecting the Saleta ravine to the Turia river“.

Both have been paralyzed for three years “due to lack of budgetary availability and environmental problems”, as the CHJ itself recognized in certain slides used during the PGRI presentation days of intercommunity hydrographic demarcations in September 2021.

The environmental problem he refers to is precisely Law 5/2018 of the Huerta de Valencia approved when the Ministry of Agriculture was in the hands of the Commitments.

In the latest monitoring report of the Ministry of Riverside’s flood risk management plan, it is noted, regarding the diversion of the Poyo ravine, that “the initially planned solution must be reoriented” due to its conflict with the regional regulations.

This plan envisaged the construction of a new canal (greenway) which connected the ravine to the new canal of the Turia river. It is worth recalling that during the fateful afternoon of October 29, heavy rains transformed the normally dry river beds into a tsunami of almost 2,000 cubic meters per second.

Concerning the actions on the ravine of La Saletain Aldaia, the document indicates that after the analysis of the costs and benefits which had been positive, the project was in the final phase in 2022, in the absence of authorization from the Generalitat Valenciana.

The Autonomous Administration, however, published an unfavorable report and demanded “the burying of infrastructure to avoid the impact on the landscape of the orchard”, which, according to the experts consulted by this newspaper, makes “no sense” and which makes the project considerably more expensive.

The project prepared by the CHJ unified and updated the proposals approved in 2006 and 2010. It consisted of the creation of a channel between the ravine and the new Turia canal to avoid “frequent and serious flooding” in Aldaia, a request from the Town Hall. of this town for 40 years.

Since 1994

The need to adapt the Poyo and Saleta chains has been a reality detected at least since 1994.

In this period, since the last government of Felipe Gonzalez aware Pedro Sanchez, There have been nine initiatives to respond to this work. But due to various legal, bureaucratic or environmental issues, they all ended up in a drawer.

The sources consulted by EL ESPAÑOL attribute this paralysis to “total abandonment” on the part of the Ministry and the Confederation.

They emphasize that from the Ministry of Therese Ribera In recent years, they have devoted themselves to promoting “nature-based” solutions, that is to say works adapted to small overflows, but not to large avenues.

In this regard, they agree with the member of the College of Civil Engineers of Valencia, Fede Bonetin which large floods can only be stopped by structural works, such as canals or dams.

In this sense, the planned works have been planned for avenues like those of the DANA of October 29, which, in technical terms, have a “return period” of 500 years.

sandbags

In the absence of these works, the Valencian municipality of Aldaia, one of the most affected by DANA two weeks ago, prepared this Tuesday for warnings of a new drop of cold by placing bags around the ravine.

The mayor of the city, Guillermo Lujanhe expressed, in statements to Europe Presshis “concern”. “There is a warning about a new DANA, we don’t have more information, we don’t know how much flow is going to come,” he said.

“In 2022, there was the last significant DANA, the flow was 225 cubic meters, on October 29, two weeks ago, there were 2,200, or 10 times more, it was a tsunami“, said.

The first mayor explained that every year, to manage the cold drops that affect the urban area, protections are usually placed in the tunnels and in the streets, gates to channel water from the Saleta ravine to the Turia river.

Now, on this occasion, “as they are destroyed because this tsunami“And in the face of this lack of protection, we seek a life as we do these weeks,” he added.

The municipality therefore decided on Tuesday to install sandbags around the ravine, as a “retaining wall” and to “attempt to channel any water”.