One of the most repeated mantras from the PP to try to divert its responsibility in the management of the DANA during last October 29 is that the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) opened the floodgates of the Forata dam and did not notify the municipalities downstream.
A statement from the popular ranks that includes two hoaxes. According to the documentation collected by elDiario.es, it is false that the CHJ did not alert about the relief of the dam and it is also false that it is the body responsible for calling the affected localities. Furthermore, the dam’s gates remained open days before October 29, since it was at 14% of its capacity and was only drained when it reached the level of the spillways, a situation that the CHJ warned about twice an hour in advance. to the Generalitat. However, the massive alert to citizens’ cell phones, which was sent due to the situation of the dam, did not arrive until 8:12 p.m.
According to the Special Plan against Flood Riskthe monitoring of ravines and minor channels must be done through the information provided by the municipalities and the intervention services deployed in the territory (Civil Guard, Forest Fire Service of the Generalitat, Police of the Generalitat, Environmental Agents…) , which the Emergency Coordination Center (CCE) of the Generalitat must coordinate to take the pertinent measures.
Furthermore, according to the same document, in emergency situations, the functions of the Confederation in the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi), as a member of the risk monitoring group are, literally, “the evolution of flows and situation of reservoirs in large rivers and, if a Dam Emergency Plan is activated, they will provide information on the risks of the same, they will advise the director of the Plan [la consellera de Justicia, entonces Salomé Pradas] in the adoption of protection measures for the population and will ensure compliance with the provisions of the corresponding Dam Emergency Plan.”
For its part, it is the responsibility of the CCE to “coordinate all the information” and, among other functions, “to keep the municipalities informed of increases, foreseeable or notified by other organizations, in the channels of their municipal area” and “to determine, depending on the type and severity of the emergency, the population protection measures that must be adopted; determine the human and material resources that must be assigned to each of the possible locations of the emergency in the Valencian Community, establishing the priorities for action that it deems appropriate.
In this framework, the CHJ sent two emails to the Generalitat’s Emergencies alerting of the risk in the Forata dam and by extension in the Magro river. Specifically, at 4:44 p.m. he sent the following message via email: “The Forata Reservoir presents an increasing trend in its elevation. If this evolution continues, there is a possibility that the discharge level will be reached at some point during the next hour, which will be communicated for the appropriate purposes.”
Just a few minutes later, at 4:55 p.m., the CHJ sent the following email to the CCE: “It is reported that in the next hour, flows greater than 1000 m3/s are expected in the Magro River due to the relief of the dam. The following towns can be significantly affected by the Magro River: Montroi, Real, Alfarp, L’Alcudia and Algemessí. These flows join the Júcar River in Algemessí. Monitoring of the reservoir will continue and any significant changes will be communicated.”
Despite this warning, the mayors of Montroi, Real and Alfarp have assured elDiario.es that they did not receive any communication from the Generalitat’s Emergencies, although they explain that around 3:20 p.m. all communications went down as a consequence of the storm. The one from Algemesí also denounced at the time the absence of information. However, when they were restored, they did not receive the notices of that day, not even the call for a telematic meeting that the CCE called for 6:45 p.m. on October 29 due to the risk of collapse of the dam.
In this regard, Emergency sources contradict the mayors and show the warning that was launched on social networks at 5:41 p.m. with the hydrological alert in the Magro and Júcar rivers, but municipal officials insist that they did not receive any information. However, the Emergency notice itself shows that it received the information from the CHJ and that they were responsible for transferring it to the municipalities.
The following email from the CHJ to the Generalitat Emergencies occurred at 5:56 p.m.: “Good afternoon, the Forata reservoir has begun to flow and flows greater than 1000 m3/s are expected in the Magro river.”
Despite all these warnings, the Generalitat Emergencies sent the alert message to the citizens at 8:12 p.m., a message that was sent due to the danger of the Forata dam breaking and not because of the situation in the Poyo ravine.
All of these emails are part of the 194 messages with different notices and alerts sent by the CHJ to the CCE throughout the day on October 29. As this newspaper reported, only in the period from 2:30 p.m., when President Carlos Mazón was at a meal in which he offered the direction of public television to a Valencian journalist, until his arrival at the Integrated Operational Coordination Center ( Cecopi) after 7:30 p.m., the Emergency Coordination Center (CCE) of the Generalitat received a total of 62 notices from the Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) of the Confederation. These are different situations linked to DANA, such as exceeding thresholds in flows and rain gauges. When these limits are exceeded, the system automatically generates a notice that is sent to the CCE, where Civil Protection is located.
In relation to the Poyo ravine, of the 62 warnings, there were information emails at 4:37 p.m., at 4:50 p.m. for exceeding thresholds in the Chiva rain gauges; at 4:57 p.m. and 5:02 p.m. by the flow of the Rambla del Poyo in Riba-Roja; at 5:27 p.m. due to rainfall in Chiva; at 5:57 p.m. again along the Rambla del Poyo in Riba-Roja; and at 6:28 p.m. again due to heavy rains in Chiva. At 6:43 p.m., the Confederation sent the last warning through the sensor located in the ravine, near Riba-roja, which was already registering 1,686 cubic meters per second, which caused the force of the water to drag the measurement system and However, the alert was not sent to citizens until 8:12 p.m., an hour and a half later. In total, the Valencian Government received seven warnings due to torrential rains in the Poyo ravine (Riba-roja) and in Chiva. All this data is available in real time on the CHJ website.
Likewise, the CCE issued a hydrological alert that remained activated all day in the first flood of the Poyo ravine that occurred around 12:20 p.m.
Contrary to what has been proclaimed from the ranks of the PP in recent weeks, the CHJ is not the only one responsible for measuring the flows of the ravines, but rather its SAIH system is one more part of the entire mechanism. According to the Flood Plan, the monitoring of ravines and minor channels must be done through the information provided by the municipalities and the intervention services deployed in the territory (Civil Guard, Forest Fire Service of the Generalitat, Police of the Generalitat , environmental agents), which the Emergency Center must coordinate to take the relevant measures.
As reported by this editorial team, on October 29, the coordinator of the flood operation, the Valencia Provincial Firefighters Consortium, sent four units of forest firefighters to control the scales, that is, the flows of the Poyo ravine and the Magro river in Chiva, Alzira, Requena and Utiel. Specifically, at 12:56 on DANA day, the first unit based in Buñol was sent to measure the flow of the Poyo ravine channel near Chiva. At 1:01 p.m., the unit based in Alzira was sent to take samples of the Magro River as it passed through Carlet; At 2:00 p.m., the Requena unit was transferred to the district of Pontón, where the Magro also passes, and at 3:00 p.m., the Sinarcas unit received orders to measure the Magro as it passes through Utiel. At this time, all these municipalities were suffering significant flooding.
The data collected by these forest fire units had to be sent to the Emergency Coordination Center, as required by protocol. At 7:30 p.m., the forest firefighters were withdrawn by the Emergency Department, as criticized by the unions and individual firefighters on social networks.
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