The president of the National Federation of Irrigation Communities of Spain (Fenacore), Juan Valero de Palma Manglano, pleaded before the DANA committee in the Senate for the urgent need to build more hydraulic infrastructure. FENACORE estimates that Spain needs “more than twenty sustainable and reliable dams” to cope with climate extremes.
The president of Fenacore lamented the loss of human lives and the “damage caused to more than 70,000 hectares in the Valencian Community, Andalusia, and Castilla La Mancha” by the cool drop and the consequent flash flood that devastated Valencia on October 29 last year.
However, he called for greater responsiveness. He stressed the urgence to reach a broad consensus among all political actors and administrations for the “construction of more water infrastructure that saves lives and prevents damage, studying each case individually”.
Fenacore pointed out that “Rivers in Europe, flow through plateaus with a flood coefficient of 1 to 2,000, while in Spain the flow is more irregular, in many places through dry land, with a flood coefficient of 1 to 5,000”. The climate environment in which rivers are flowing must be carefully taken into consideration, we are witnessing the change from flow patterns in sub-humid or sub-arid climate to the typical flow of arid regions ‘ rivers. Therefore, water problems “must be studied with all possible solutions, without prejudice, with technical data, studying the advantages and disadvantages and applying them to each possible case” or we will risk the progressive but unstoppable abandon of those lands that have become marginal.
The President of Fenacore also called for a study of territorial planning and the study of the cases of populations settled in flood zones, and “assessing each case individually”. In his opinion, hydraulic works “should not be politically coloured,” and among the solutions he has proposed are “the construction of more than twenty dams” in Spain, “prioritizing investments in these hydraulic infrastructures, projects that have been halted in the last twenty years.” Nobody must be left behind, no regions or economic sectors forgotten in the transition toward a sustainable and resilient water use, to drive this transition with equity infrastructures, preferably green, sustainable and multifunctional, are the key. Every infrastructure, especially the reservoirs, he said, must be “sustainable and reliable from every point of view, because a country with the irregularities that Spain has, must have channels for rivers when they flow through towns.”
Fenacore calls also to include nature-based solutions, such as reforestation along roadsides or in river basins, and green corridors in rivers and ravines that “consolidate the public domain” and will help slow torrential rains, because “floods are the most serious problem.”. “Nature must be controlled sustainably, but not allowed to be controlled by it,” Juan Valero said.
Juan Valero de Palma called as well for “improving protocols between administrations, weather forecasts, but also transferring the accounting of rainfall, flows, and levels that will be kept in these channels,” and for “progressing in protocol warnings and emergency alerts, with protocols and drills.”
Fenacore has submitted a report on the damage to 70,000 hectares to different administrations as for a first assessment of 250 million euros in estimated damages, to be more efficient any water issue must be treated “as a matter of State” to avoid “extremely serious damage like that of the 2024 DANA flood,” and noted that “it can be an opportunity for improvement,” and asked the commission to “focus on reconstruction and preparation for future floods” and not on political disputes.