Floods are nothing new in the Segura basin. The Hydrographic Confederation itself has records of extreme episodes since the 13th century. They are not in the province of Albacete. In May 2018, several municipalities such as Pétrola, Isso, Yeste, Riópar, Liétor, La Gineta… suffered floods. Hellín was one of the most affected. In June, torrential rains caused flooding and collapse in Elche de la Sierra, Liétor and Socovos. The Government of Castilla-La Mancha activated the Special Plan for Civil Protection against the Risk of Floods (PRICAM) when it was informed by the Segura Hydrographic Confederation of the forecast of overflowing of the Segura River in the section between the Fuensanta and Fuensanta reservoirs. The Cenajo.
They are also not strange in Letur, the town of Albacete where on October 29 an avalanche of water killed six people. Hours before, the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) had activated the orange warning for this part of Albacete and the forecast seems to have fallen short.
Stefan Nolte is a technician in Integrated Water Cycle Management and a member of the Platform in Defense of the Sources of the Segura and Mundo Rivers, created back in 2007 and made up of a dozen groups from the area, in reaction to the project to install drought wells in the Sierra de Segura and Campos de Hellín region.
He lives in Riópar, a town an hour’s drive from Letur. He believes that what happened was the result of multiple factors. On the one hand, a powerful DANA of which, he says, “the warning could well have been red.” Today it is known that that day 230 liters per square meter fell at the head of the boulevard, the ravine upstream of Letur, but “no official rain gauge recorded what happened in the town,” he laments.
He just did it the Suremet networkcreated in 2009 by a group of people, university researchers, who collect unofficial meteorological data in six provinces in the southeast of Spain, whose rain gauges, says Nolte, “have Wi-Fi and the one at the campsite works.” There, at the Letur campsite, the rainfall figure published on their website does not reach five liters per square meter in 24 hours that day.
It is known that, in the nearby Fuensanta reservoir, about 10 kilometers northwest of Letur, 149.6 liters per m² (l/ m²) were collected in 24 hours. And in ten minutes they fell to 25.6 l/m², according to AEMET data.
“There is little coordination between AEMET and the Segura Hydrographic Confederation and Suremet data is not used either, it is not integrated into the official network, nor does it reach Civil Protection,” criticizes Nolte.
In his opinion, beyond the orange notice, “no one warns the population of the flood on the rambla There is not even any gauge within the Letur Rambla that would have allowed the evolution of its flow to be measured.”
In this sense, he remembers that the Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) of the Segura Confederation was installed for the large avenues that flooded the area of Murcia, which, he recognizes, “is the most exposed.”
Nobody warns the population about the flooding on the boulevard. There is not even any capacity within the Letur Rambla that would have allowed measuring the evolution of its flow
Stefan Nolte
— Platform in Defense of the Sources of the Segura and Mundo rivers
On the other hand, the basin’s Hydrological Plan, recently updated, contemplated increasing the network of gauges, although with the objective of confirming compliance with ecological flows. Not so much in flood forecasting, because, Stefan Nolte points out, “the issue of floods is the ugly duckling of hydrological planning. People are thinking that it is something that can happen in 100 years and that, if it is not done today, it will be done tomorrow. Until it happens.”
An “insufficient” system of dikes and channeling in the rambla
The source of the Letur stream is one kilometer away, with a drainage basin of 65 km2 in a boulevard, a dry barrack, occasionally occupied by water after the rains.
There are dams and water channeling systems that were built in the 90s of the 20th century. “It was insufficient because the existing dams laminate the flood, but they only work when they are small.”
On the other hand, he says, “the channeling that was made is much smaller than the flood channel. You can see it in the videos from that day.” On San Antón Street, he explains, this channeling was adapted to urban planning.
There is an area, the Moreras slope that gives access to the castle, that “in 1956 it was already like this, with some subsequent changes” and that, he says, “is perhaps the best to maintain human uses: a wide street is maintained, “where you can park, but it is not so much for these cases.” In general “it is like carrying water down a walkway with two falls on the sides.”
Should we clean mountains and riverbeds? we ask. It is one of the controversies generated as a result of this catastrophe. Nolte explains that “the headwaters of the ravines have been reforested all their lives to avoid flooding. Plant remains will arrive in the flood, but it will take away its strength. The clearing of mountains must be done for the purposes of fires, not floods. And, on the other hand, cleaning channels makes sense where they are narrow.”
Regarding housing, he acknowledges that there will also be a debate about how and where to build, not only because the old town of Letur is an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) but because many of the houses are old. “We will have to build differently.” Furthermore, he warns, “Spanish legislation allows it to be done in flood-prone areas, where the return periods are longer and there is supposed to be less danger, if it is done respecting certain levels.”
How to reduce the danger?
When it comes to minimizing risks, Stefan Nolte is committed to reforesting the headwaters, “as long as it does not pose a risk of fire” and taking into account that this “will mean increasing transpiration and reducing the amount of water that comes out through the sources.”
Another option would be the construction of a dam to laminate the avenues, but “it would have to be studied very well because it is an environmentally sensitive area.” Or you can increase the drainage system and build a wider and more naturalized channeling system. These are options that engineers, among other professionals, must consider.
“On the Moreras slope, the walkway that leads to the castle, all the filling material that was put in should be removed. Maybe introduce underground drainage channels.” He says that it wouldn’t even hurt for the DGT to mark flood zones. Not only in Letur.
In the Flood Risk Management Plans there was not a single measure for Letur, despite being identified as a risk area and surely we are all to blame because they are prepared with citizen participation. We have a general problem of social awareness about floods
Stefan Nolte
— Platform in Defense of the Sources of the Segura and Mundo rivers.
The stream in this Albacete town was already part of the Areas with Significant Potential Risk of Flooding (ARPSI) of the Segura Confederation in 2010. In the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment corresponding to the third planning cycle for review, currently During the public exhibition period until December 2, the risk appears again, in a stretch of 1.68 kilometers. “In the Flood Risk Management Plans there was not a single measure for Letur, despite being identified as a risk area and surely we are all to blame because they are prepared with citizen participation,” he laments. “We have a general problem of social awareness about floods.”
Jorge Olcina is a professor of Regional Geographic Analysis at the University of Alicante, where he teaches classes on Territorial Planning, Climatology and Natural Risks. This Thursday he participated in a conference in Toledo to talk about ‘Water planning in Spain in the context of climate change: the necessary paradigm shift’, in an activity organized by the UCLM-Soliss Tajo Chair. In his opinion, the solution, not only for Letur, but for all affected areas will involve “multiple measures.”
One of them will be hydraulic civil works. “There are boulevards and streams that run through the middle of the streets of towns and cities, and where you cannot remove houses. A diversion of channels will be needed to prevent what has happened from happening again.”
Along with that, he says, “sensible, rational urban planning and management will be necessary that takes into account flood zones.” It will have to be, he adds, “an action that is respectful of the environment, but if what happened has taught us anything, it is that above all else, human lives will have to be saved because we are seeing that we have not done so.”
This expert who directs the Climatology Laboratory of the University of Alicante advocates reviewing the return periods of floods, improving communication protocols and implementing risk education measures, not only in schools but for the entire population. . “Citizen associations, environmental groups, unions, business groups will have to play an important role… They will have to dedicate part of their annual action to training their associates about risk.”
Olcina maintains that “throughout Spain we have a very disorganized territory and when these disasters occur we realize how bad we are in that sense.”
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