MADRID – Three weeks later flash floods killed 226 people In Spain, experts have revealed that a series of projects aimed at reducing flood damage were never carried out due to a desire to cut spending.

The main reason why so many lives were taken the floods That’s because appropriate alerts weren’t raised on the day of the catastrophic October downpours, they noted.

However, the devastation seen SpainThe eastern Valencia region could have been reduced if flooding proposals suggested years ago had been implemented, experts involved in developing those plans said.

Ramiro Martínez Costa, a civil engineer who helped develop the Spanish government’s proposals to reduce flood risks in Valencia, said the plan was supposed to be implemented in 2011 but was never realized due to budget cuts caused by the international financial crisis. years earlier.

He stressed that the torrential rains which hit Valencia on October 29 constituted an “extraordinary incident”.

“If these projects had been carried out, it would have only reduced property damage by 20 to 30 percent,” he said. I. “Another thing is deaths. I am convinced that if a proper alarm had been raised (and warned people) not to get in their cars or go up to heights etc, it would have reduced the number of casualties to virtually nothing.

Sergio Salazar, a researcher specializing in weather risk events at Pablo Olavide University in Seville, said a series of plans to reduce flood risk in Valencia never came to fruition.

In the 1990s, the Valencian region commissioned a study of flood risks which was to be adopted in 2003.

Part of this plan included evacuating water from the Rambla del Poyo and Pozalet, two ravines that were at the center of the devastating disaster. flood.

Another project that was abandoned was to build a large reservoir in Cheste, a town north of Valencia. This was canceled for environmental reasons and after opposition from local residents.

A single section of pipeline was built to Paiporta, one of the towns most affected by the floods, where 60 people died.

In 2000, significant flooding occurred in the area, resulting in damage insurance claims totaling €60 million (£50 million).

Mr. Salazar was part of a team of experts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia that studied the flooding and developed a plan to “significantly reduce the risk using measures such as reforestation of springs or small distributed reservoirs”.

The study was published in the Journal of Hydrology in 2021.

“We showed that expected annual damage in flood-prone areas could be reduced by 48 percent and 17 percent, respectively,” Salazar said.

In 2007, the European Union’s Flood Risk Management Directive established a mandatory system of studies identifying areas at potential risk of flooding.

Rambla del Poyo has been identified as dangerous and at extreme risk of flooding. Three proposed interventions in Rambla del Poyo and Rambla Pozalet were proposed but never adopted.

This included a pipeline that would connect to the Turia River, Valencia’s main river, to carry away floodwaters. It has also been proposed to drain the Poyo Basin to introduce flood protection for the next 500 years.

“In conclusion, if all the proposed plans had been implemented, the risk of flooding in 2024 would have been significantly reduced,” Mr Salazar said. I.

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“However, given that this is a highly urbanized flood zone, it is necessary to have an effective early warning system to avoid loss of life. If that had been the case, no one would have had to go to work and people would have tried to find a safe place.

“We would only be talking about material damage, or only a few deaths, and not the catastrophic figures that have been put forward.”

Meanwhile, yesterday the King and Queen of Spain returned to the flood-devastated area for the first time since enraged survivors threw them and top elected officials with mud during their first visit to the disaster area.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the hilltop town of Chiva, 32 kilometers west of the city of Valencia, accompanied by a central government minister and the regional head of eastern Valencia.

No mud flew this time as the royal couple shook people’s hands. Other spectators took photos.

Chiva was devastated by an overwhelming wall of water that overflowed a normally dry gorge on the night of October 29. Two of the four bridges spanning the gorge were demolished and several houses were swept away by the waters.