The National Federation of Irrigation Communities (Fenacore) denounced this Wednesday that the new hydrological plans eliminated 75 hydraulic projects, among them, the construction of four dams in the province of Valencia that, in addition to supplying water to agriculture and citizens , would have contributed to stopping floods of water like those of the DANA on October 29. Asks the new third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, to “review” the recovery of these plans when the basin plans are renewed in 2027 and, in the shorter term, demands the construction of the 27 dams that appear in hydrological planning at least since 2016 and whose works have not yet begun.
The president of Fenacore, Juan Valero, has called for the construction of the planned dams that appear in the basin plans of the various rivers as a way to guarantee water for irrigation and the population, but also with the argument that ” “All reservoirs serve to laminate avenues of water dams.”
This was seen in Valencia on October 29, when the Ministry of Ecological Transition recognized that the Forata dam managed to contain part of the flood that came down the Magro River and minimize the effects of its overflow downstream.
According to Valero, this brake could have been greater if four other dams that were planned along the J̼car in the province of Valencia had been built РCheste, Villamarchante, Montes and del Marquesado Рwhich not only have not been carried out. carried out, but they disappeared from the new basin plans that the Government approved in January 2022, after a laborious process of preparation and consultation with autonomous communities, irrigators and environmental organizations. In total, he said, 73 dam projects throughout Spain declined and 27 were maintained, which Fenacore demands be carried out now.
Of these 27 new dams, none are in the province of Valencia, the province hardest hit by October’s DANA, because the third basin management cycle eliminated them. It will be in force until 2027, but the first public consultations will begin shortly to begin preparing the next stage of the river management plans, which is why Fenacore asks Aagesen to be open to “reviewing” its exclusion from hydraulic works. that it is necessary to carry out and redo a cost-benefit study that should also take into account the budget that will now need to be allocated to restore the damage caused by DANA.
“How many millions of euros are we going to end up spending for the damage to the DANA. When the decision was made to eliminate these dams there had been floods but not 229 deaths,” Valero said in an appearance before the media in which he defended the construction of dams and an attack against the preeminence of the ecological vision, which has been increasingly imposed over the years, to now surpass in importance the construction of hydraulic works and which, along with guaranteeing the good state of the waters, considers the other essential leg of water management, ensuring its availability. With climate change already showing its effects in periods of drought and large floods that destabilize the riverbed, it has also added to the need to build works and other water infrastructure, which environmental groups oppose, in the last six years with a special weight in the decisions of the Ministry of Ecological Transition that Aagesen now inherits.
“The new cycle of hydrological planning prioritizes environmentalism and biodiversity, restoring rivers to their natural regime, without evaluating the effects. Europe prioritizes environmental philosophy over hydrological planning,” said Valero, who also opposed the ecological vision, has opted to clean the rivers and channel rivers and ravines, with natural measures but also with “gray” concrete works.
“I am sure that when the new vice president sits down and studies the water problem she will say that thank goodness we have dams and infrastructure in Spain,” Valero noted. At Fenacore, he added, “we trust and hope that he will carry out this analysis.” “We are going to try to collaborate with the greatest loyalty, but with the greatest firmness in defending these solutions that are not only good for irrigation,” said the president of an entity that brings together 80% of the irrigation communities in Spain. and that in the past it has had friction with the Ecological Transition, for example due to its claim – supported by the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas – that it be prohibited to install solar panels on irrigated land that had public aid, which Aagesen and his predecessor, Teresa Ribera, opposed.
As he has said, in addition to the weight of the environmentalist positions against, the decision not to build them is influenced by different circumstances, from the lawsuits before the courts against these projects to the opposition of a certain mayor with influence on his regional president or the Government. central.
Likewise, and as has been argued since October 29 by the Government and all types of experts not to undertake other planned works, such as the channeling of the Poyo ravine, Valero has also pointed out that both in the elimination of projects such as the four dams in the Júcar and the fact that construction of the 27 that are still planned has not yet begun has to do with their economic cost. According to Fenacore, there are planned investments of 3,000 million euros but only 29.2% of the planned hydraulic works have been carried out.
“The decision to remove them (the Valencian dams) has been influenced by budgetary resources,” said the president of Fenacore, who also recalled that the Government has budgeted 2.5 billion within the National River Restoration Strategy, which, in line With the “European strategy”, it goes in the opposite direction to the construction of presses, tending to destroy azures and small disused infrastructures.
For some time now, the complaint has been recurring, especially by Vox, that the Ecological Transition has destroyed dams. The Government describes this statement as an “absolutely incomprehensible hoax”, since the DANA of Valencia has used data to insist that this “is not real”. This Wednesday, the president of Fenacore said he did not want to “fall into demagoguery” and, like the Government, he has stated that what is being done “from Spain throughout Europe” is to remove azures and “small” reservoirs, which cannot be they use or that do not affect the demands. However, it has claimed that part of these 2.5 billion can be used to build at least the 27 dams that do appear in the current basin plans, in addition to “reflecting” on the inclusion of more from 2027.