The non-execution of the project to channel the Poyo ravine, which has been stuck for more than two decades under the PP and PSOE governments, is one of the aspects that has generated the most controversy after the devastating DANA that on October 29 ended 224 lives. . The delay in the execution of this action, which remains entangled in bureaucratic procedures, is one of the nails that the PP has clung to in trying to shift responsibility for the enormous damage to the central government of Pedro Sánchez, given that it is a work that depends on the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ). However, the reality is that much of the blame for the stagnation is the responsibility of Mariano Rajoy’s time as President of the Government, for not launching works that already had a favorable Environmental Impact Declaration (DIA). An EIS that expired due to inaction by the executive and that had to be processed again later.
Originally, in 1994, the CHJ drafted the Basic Project for the restitution and adaptation of the natural channels of the Poyo, Torrente, Chiva and Pozalet ravines, which included other tributary ravines such as Gallego, l’Horteta and La Saleta. For the purposes of its bidding, it was divided into four phases, respectively, according to the four main channels of the project title, and obtained a favorable environmental impact declaration (DIA) in 1996, by the then Department of the Environment of the Generalitat Valenciana. However, after receiving a letter from the European Commission of the Environment, in July 1999, the Ministry of the Environment issued a complementary resolution that incorporated new conditions to the aforementioned EIS, the fulfillment of which made it unfeasible to continue with the original project, therefore that a new separate project was drafted, limited to the area of the Poyo ravine (Phase I), between Albufera and Paiporta.
The modification of the EIS established the obligation to propose new alternatives for the remaining sections of the original Project, in order to resolve the problem of flooding upstream of the Phase I section, as well as give a comprehensive treatment to the problem. This new separated Project (Phase I) and the remaining one (Phases II, II and IV) were included in Annex II of the National Hydrological Plan (Law 10/2001).
The CHJ processed and executed the works of the Restitution and Adaptation Project of the natural channels of the Poyo, Torrente, Chiva and Pozalet ravines that affected the municipal areas of Catarroja, Massanassa and Paiporta, between September 2002 and October 2005, being received on 11-17-2005. They consisted of the well-known 7.2 km long channel with a 4 meter service road on both sides. The amount invested was 19.7 million euros.
Thus, to comprehensively resolve the flooding of the area, in July 2004 a study was drawn up on possible solutions for the comprehensive defense against floods on the Rambla del Poyo, which gave rise to significant public participation, receiving numerous suggestions. and allegations. Consequently, in April 2006, the Information Project ‘Environmental adaptation and drainage of the Poyo basin facing the Albufera’ was drafted with the Environmental Impact Summary Report, thus giving continuity to the environmental processing of all the proposed actions and to end to obtain the mandatory DIA.
In February 2009, the General Directorate of Water of the Ministry of the Environment authorized the CHJ to draft the Environmental Adaptation and Drainage Project for the Poyo basin on the Albufera side (València), for an estimated amount of 221.4 million of euros. Finally, in November 2010, the seven construction projects that develop the Project were completed, which were the following: Greenway connecting the Poyo ravine with the new Turia riverbed and adaptation of the Poyo ravine between the Júcar-Turia aqueduct and Paiporta; drainage of the La Saleta ravine as it passes through Aldaia and Quart de Poblet; Pozalet ravine greenway between the flood-prone green area and the Saleta ravine in Quart de Poblet; adaptation of the Pozalet ravine between Loriguilla and the green flood zone; adaptation of the Poyo ravine and tributaries between the junction with the A-3 and the Júcar-Turia aqueduct; hydrological corrections in the upper basin of the Poyo ravine; and forest restoration of the upper basin of the Poyo ravine.
On December 16, 2011, the State Secretariat for Climate Change of the Ministry of the Environment formulated a favorable DIA with its respective conditions. Among them, that another project that had been drafted by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport of the Generalitat Valenciana in 2006, called ‘Vía Verde Xirivella-Nuevo Cauce del Turia’ and that affected the La Saleta ravine, not included in the Information Project described and that did not require DIA according to the Ministry of Territory and Housing, should be taken into account to adjust the works projected in that for the ravines of the Pozalet and Saleta.
On January 5, 2018, the environmental impact declaration expires as the project has not started due, according to the same sources, to the PP cuts that left between 25% and 30% of the pre-crisis budget availability for water policies.
For this reason, that same year the process began again with the cost-benefit analysis of the project. Currently, at the request of the Generalitat Valenciana, a Landscape Integration study is being drafted which, once favorably reported by the regional administration, will lead to a favorable declaration of environmental impact, approval of the project and bidding for the works.
“It would have alleviated material damage by 30%”
Ramiro Martínez Costa is a civil engineer and wrote one of the first plans related to the channeling of the Poyo ravine in 2006. In an interview on November 21 on the ‘Bon Dia Comunitat Valenciana’ program on À Punt, he assured that “we must do These works were proposed a long time ago, but we must not fall into the false security of believing that with these works carried out the danger has disappeared, zero risk does not exist because it would require investments. enormous and perhaps the transfer of entire populations.”
Martínez Costa commented that they work with design criteria with a return period of 500 years, that is, “infrastructures that are capable of achieving defense for episodes that occur on average once every 500 years, it is a necessary algorithm for us to project with initial design criteria” and added: “It is a bifurcation project, a set of pieces throughout the Poyo basin that contributed to the reduction of the flood wave. On this occasion we have suffered an event of biblical proportions and it is not true that if these solutions had been built, the catastrophe that has occurred would not have been suffered in Horta Sud. According to my estimates, 20% or 30% of the material damage could have been avoided, but the overflow with the magnitude that we have known would not have been avoided. In any case, the fundamental issue is not the reduction of material damage, but the problem of the number of fatalities we have had, which is not understandable in a country that is considered developed, this has to do with other issues that are not infrastructural solutions, there are basic prevention measures and alerting the population to take their own defense measures.”
Regarding the alleged incompatibility with the Orchard Protection Law, he commented that “it is not true that it prevents action like this; It does provide for a series of issues to take into account in the event that you want to promote a public action that affects the protected space, but it provides a series of tools so that an action like this can be carried out, maintaining a series of protection considerations on the orchard and looking for solutions that produce the least impact.”
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