Since 2009, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, through the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar, had not carried out the cleaning of the Barranco del Poyo, which had become the zero point of the worst Dana of this century, despite the insistence of several administrations on its execution.
During the development of the Flood Risk Management Plan (2022-2027), one of the main requests received during the public information process referred to the lack of progress of the Júcar Confederation in this project which had already been included in the first planning cycle. : environmental adaptation and drainage of the Poyo Vertiente basin towards Albufera.
According to the report of the Committee of Competent Authorities of the Hydrographic Demarcation of Júcar, to which elEconomista.es had access, a group responsible for examining the development of the flood risk management plan, the complaints presented by the Riba City Hall are red for the lack of execution of the said project was clearly noted.
The situation was such that the municipality even added to its cleaning request the slogan “or actions deemed appropriate to reduce the risk of flooding in the area”.
Risk in polygons
Likewise, the Town Hall requested more details on the flooding problem suffered by the industrial zones of the municipality and their economic activities.
The 2022-2027 Plan finally approved included a list of structural measures (dams, canals, motes, dikes, etc.), under the jurisdiction of the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar, for which environmental feasibility studies had not been carried out or approved. the economic and social viability of the first planning cycle, which obviously included the adaptation and channeling in the urban area of Aldaia and the drainage of flows towards the Poyo ravine.
During the first cycle, the government indicates that it has carried out the study of the so-called greenway connecting the Poyo ravine to the new canal of the Turia river (see graph). In fact, the approval of its environmental impact statement corresponded to the current Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, when she was Secretary of State in the Zapatero government.
Seen by Ribera
On December 16, 2011, Ribera formulated a favorable environmental impact statement for the Poyo Basin Environmental Adaptation and Drainage Project, on the Albufera side, with a series of conditions.
In 2017, the environmental impact statement expired because the project had not started and forced the process to start again in 2018 with the cost-benefit analysis of the project.
The drainage of the Poyo basin was subsequently paralyzed due to incompatibility with the Law for the Protection of Gardens of the Valencian Community, approved by the government of Ximo Puig.
Now the Generalitat Valencia is committed to making changes to said rule to be able to carry out this type of actions in an area in which it has even been discussed whether its supervision corresponds to the Confederation, as its inclusion in the Confederation clearly shows. plans.
Curiously, this same work was claimed by Compromís in 2020 with amendments to the general state budgets that also did not bear fruit.
Other problems
The 2022-2027 Plan carried out by the current Ministry of Ecological Transition also identified measures to establish or improve institutional planning for responding to flood emergencies through coordination with civil protection plans, and identified several actions uninitiated such as the development of the State Plan, Regional Plans to promote self-protection plans or the updating of the Special Civil Protection Plan against floods.
Among the measures aimed at improving public awareness of flood preparedness, increasing flood risk perception and self-protection strategies, some measures falling within the competence of civil protection agencies have not been implemented. work, such as improving the publication and dissemination in the media of data related to damage caused by floods or the dissemination of information campaigns, particularly in the autonomous communities of Aragon and Castile-La Mancha where no of these measures has not been carried out. Let’s not forget that there was no budget for them. In the area of establishing or improving protocols for action and communication of information, which are the responsibility of civil protection organizations (with the collaboration of other organizations), the objectives set in the PGRI have been achieved in terms of developing or updating communication protocols. in the flood and/or coastal storm phase, in the recovery phase or in the lessons learned evaluation phase.
