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Date Published: 03/10/2022

ARCHIVED - Valencia Government grants 10M euros for flood reinforcements in the Vega Baja, Alicante province

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The Vega Baja region of Alicante province is one of the areas at highest risk of flooding in Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Valencia Government grants 10M euros for flood reinforcements in the Vega Baja, Alicante province

The Valencia Government has approved a grant of 10 million to reinforce the Vega Baja comarca of Alicante province against floods.

On Friday, September 30, the Council of Ministers gave the green light to a royal decree that allocates aid to adapt urban centres, buildings and farms at risk of flooding, as well as research projects to prevent future scenes of devastation caused by torrential rains.

The Vega Baja is one of the areas with the highest risk of flooding in the country, where the National Floodplain Mapping System has catalogued up to 57 historic floods.

Of the 27 municipalities in the region, 13 include areas of "significant potential flood risk" and 24 have identified flood zones. The DANA of September 2019 once again highlighted the need to "prepare and adapt the region to future episodes of torrential rains", and Alicante Provincial Council launched the Vega Remake Plan.

Three years on, and the government has agreed 10 million-euro aid, which is part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, four months after it was expected to be approved.

In addition to covering the municipalities that make up the region, it also includes two districts of Crevillente (Realengo and San Felipe Neri), which are part of the "geographical area of flooding" in the Vega Baja.

As for the distribution of the cash, the Ministry has outlined three main lines of subsidy. The bulk, up to 50%, is aimed at works that enable the "protection, environmental improvement and adaptation to the risk of flooding of urban centres or neighbourhoods, buildings, facilities and infrastructures".

Basically, the aim is to adapt buildings to prevent water from entering or facilitate their evacuation, such as the installation of barriers, drainage pumps or non-return valves.

The next line of budget distribution, at least 25% of the 10 million, is aimed at the agricultural sector to adapt property owned by irrigation communities, water courts, irrigation syndicates and other irrigation bodies. Owners of livestock farms will also be eligible for aid.

Not surprisingly, 73% of the flood-prone area of the Vega Baja is occupied by agricultural holdings, with almost 13,000 hectares dedicated to agricultural crops and 118 livestock farms, making the agricultural sector the most affected by the floods.

In fact, the total amount of compensation paid by the Insurance Compensation Consortium on insured property for its coverage from 2005 to 2020 amounts to 205 million euros.

And finally, up to 10% of the total budget is earmarked for hiring technical staff and carrying out studies, reports and research work on floods.

A full list of potential beneficiaries has yet to be revealed, but the Generalitat has identified five nursing homes, the Vega Baja Hospital, 14 health centres and 33 educational centres as "highly vulnerable".

The DANA of 2019 caused serious flooding at the hospital and in the Puente Alto Industrial Estate in Orihuela, which were exposed to flooding from Segura and the Abanilla wadi, respectively, and are therefore "considered priorities".

Image: Proyecto Mastral

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