“We continue to remove mud from our warehouse in the Chiva industrial estate by our own means, in fact, we have had to temporarily move to another warehouse and we have not yet received any help. Little progress has been made here, there has been almost no help and what Tragsa was doing was paralyzed with the change of municipal government. When I read Mr. Mazón’s statements regarding the fact that 100% of the industrial areas had already been rehabilitated, I was surprised; it must be that we are not part of Valencia.”
Miguel Ángel Bolinches, co-owner of the Mosquistop company, located in the industrial estate of La Pahílla, in Chiva, has spoken in these terms about the situation that his company is experiencing in particular and the business park in general, after stating the President of the Government Valencian, Carlos Mazón, who conclude “the cleaning and rehabilitation tasks of 100% of the industrial areas affected by the floods.”
Both the mayors of various municipalities and the businessmen themselves have denied this announcement and have denounced that the situation of the industrial estates is still far from recovering normality and that until now it has been the town councils themselves that have financed most of the work. cleaning, despite the contracts awarded by the Generalitat, among others, to STV Gestión, the company in which Mazón’s chief of staff worked.
Specifically, as reported by elDiario.es, one of the first emergency contracts of the Government of Carlos Mazón after the catastrophic DANA went to the company in which his chief of staff and regional secretary of Communication, José Manuel Cuenca, worked for five years. The former councilor Nuria Montes, known for her inappropriate statements about the relatives of the DANA fatal victims, signed the order by hand to the company STV Gestión SL for one of the four lots of the emergency contract for the road cleaning service and entrances to industrial estates affected by the catastrophe of last October 29. The amount of the lot is 290,000 euros.
However, the new socialist mayor of Chiva, Ernesto Navarro, elected after the motion of censure that precipitated the fall of the former PP mayor, Amparo Fort, has explained that he has requested a meeting with the community of owners of the industrial estate to address the needs most urgent: “Practically, no one has gone to clean, of course the cleaning package has not arrived in Chiva. There is a problem with the scuppers that are clogged and that could create a problem in case of rain because they do not drain.”
For their part, the Catarroja City Council chaired by the mayor of the PSPV, Lorena Silvent, has denounced that there is no “supposed normality” in the El Bony industrial estate, despite all the efforts of the businessmen. In this municipality, as of December 30, there are still “many damaged vehicles to be removed from the streets of the business park, there are also very large areas that are full of debris.” The situation of the sewage network “is also very complicated, since it is functional but has collapsed, and there is still mud, scuppers to be cleaned and streets to be washed.”
This situation that the industrial estate is going through is no exception, the same happens in the urban center of Catarroja. And the fact is that “the means allocated by the Emergency Management have not been sized to meet the real needs of our municipality, after the devastating consequences of DANA,” Silvent noted.
In the statement sent from the presidency of the Generalitat, “the investment of 6.5 million euros to condition and re-equip 40 industrial parks” was highlighted, when at the local level, the amount allocated for the adaptation of the industrial zone by the City Council amounts to around 800,000 euros, while the initial lot awarded by the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (Ivace) for Albal, Beniparrell, Catarroja and Massanassa It was 240,000 euros.
In the daily meeting of mayors with the Provincial Council of Valencia, the real situation of the Catarroja industrial estate was discussed, which, like other industrial areas, is not fully operational.
Along the same lines, the socialist mayor of Riba-roja, Robert Raga, has assured that there is still “a lot to do to reach normality” and that “70% of everything that has been done has been financed with own funds of the City Council.” Raga explained that “the City Council has so far spent more than 2 million euros to try to normalize the situation” and that the IVACE has contributed approximately between 15% and 20% of the financing: “As of today there is still a lot left.” to do, we need to remove mud from the sidewalks, we must take into account that we have an industrial area with 6 million square meters, 20,000 workers and 1,400 warehouses. There are also cars to be removed, temporary fields to be cleared, and thousands of tons of waste to be removed due to a health problem. Last Sunday the last machines of the Generalitat left and there is still a lot left, although progress has been made.” Raga has demanded financing from Ivace or that the autonomous entity directly contract the resources to continue advancing.
For their part, sources from the Quart de Poblet City Council led by Mayor Cristina Mora (PSPV) have regretted that the only help they have had from the Generalitat is a contribution of 400,000 euros from Ivace that was awarded before DANA to resurface the polygon and that the City Council has been redirected to cleaning tasks: “At this time, companies continue taking out garbage and belongings that the City Council is withdrawing.”
The sector asks for European aid and warns of “a social DANA”
The president of the Valencian Federation of Business Parks, Diego Román, has thanked the effort and involvement of Ivace and the Department of Industry in the cleaning work that has been carried out so far, but has warned that there is still work to do : “There are still areas with mud and roads with dry mud that need to be washed. In addition, there are vehicles to be removed and the assessment must be expedited, it is being delayed a lot and that means that companies cannot make decisions about their viability because they depend on the damages covered by their insurance.”
On the other hand, Román has asked for a European aid package, and also for more state resources. As he explained, “a Marshall Plan from the European Commission is needed because the damage is very significant and if companies are not saved, what will come is a social DANA in the form of company closures and layoffs.” In addition, he has demanded more aid “with non-refundable funds and tax exemptions, it makes no sense for them to grant you aid and lose part of it paying taxes such as VAT.”
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