The first thing was to clear the access to the damaged areas and bring basic urgent aid to the towns that DANA swept away. Now priorities change day by day and the current one is the sanitation of the sewage system, at risk of collapse, according to the Generalitat Valenciana. Its president, Carlos Mazón, denounced this morning that his government has been asking the central executive for unblocking trucks for three days “to avoid serious public health problems.” “They don’t arrive,” he wrote on the social network X.
It is not a minor emergency and time is against it, says Environment Minister Vicente Martínez Mus in conversation with ABC. «The mud is drying and hardening. If the sewer is not emptied there is a real risk of collapse. “We could have a serious health problem and epidemics,” he says.
What are those unblocking trucks like and how many would they need?
They are specific trucks for that mission. Colloquially they are called ‘chuponas’ and they are the only ones that can do that job: remove the sludge and make the sewer cleaning flow. We have 25 already working in the field, but we would need to reach 150. They have requested the central government through the formal mechanism established but this aid has not yet arrived. None of the unblocking trucks that we have in operation have been provided by the Government. While the Government responds to our request, President Carlos Mazón has asked the CEOE and the rest of the Autonomous Communities to contribute with all the means at their disposal to provide us with more unblocking trucks.
More rain is predicted in the area this week. Could they be beneficial for this specific problem, if they soften the mud?
If it rains adequately, yes, although we already know that it is not usual in this area. A little water would be wonderful to alleviate the sewage situation. But if there is torrential rainfall again it would be even worse because the sewers could overflow. Therefore, each day that passes, each hour that passes is critical. We need to solve this problem now. We cannot predict whether the collapse will occur in the next 48 or 72 hours.
He has said that they face a very serious health problem. Which infection worries you the most?
I convey a real risk that the Minister of Health has communicated to us, but I would not dare cite the names of the infections that we face due to the lack of sanitation. He insists that the danger of epidemic outbreaks is very high, which is why we insist that those who work in cleaning tasks use very specific equipment: masks, protective glasses, overalls…
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, reported in Congress that there were also more than a hundred unused treatment plants, under the mud. Is it also one of your biggest concerns?
It is not so urgent and does not affect health. In this case the risk is environmental. But of the 122 that DANA damaged, there are only seven that are not working properly and will be quickly rehabilitated. The others are partially or fully operational.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition also promised to send them ten bombs like those used in humanitarian disasters. Have they arrived yet, do you have them?
The needs vary from day to day and now we have enough bilge pumps.
There are tons of waste, furniture, appliances and debris still to be collected. Are they being collected quickly enough?
I am quite satisfied with the shock plan that we have put in place. It works 24 hours a day. They are collected at the same rate as they are removed from homes and streets. Public services take them to fields that have been set up as storage transition points to quickly remove them from the urban area and from there they are taken to treatment plants. We are extracting 4,000 tons of waste daily. To give you an idea, that is equivalent to the waste that all affected municipalities can generate for two years.
Is the debate between the use of mineral water or boiled water so important that the Government now faces its administration?
There is no debate. Our position is very clear and has been marked by the Ministry of Health: where there is no suitable water, bottled water should be consumed, which is available to everyone. It makes no sense for someone who is not up to date with the operation to make different statements that only generate confusion and go nowhere. They only get in the way.
There is also a risk of the proliferation of diseases that mosquitoes help transmit. How are they acting?
We are already fumigating with vats in certain areas where there is the greatest need to avoid the risk of stagnant water. It will intensify in inverse proportion to the removal of sludge.
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