By AFP - Agence France Presse
Spain urged to “build differently” after deadly floods.
Wafaa ESSALHI
Spain is rushing to rebuild areas devastated by last month's deadly floods, but experts have called for a rethink of development by relocating buildings away from vulnerable areas.
The worst floods to hit Spain in decades on October 29 killed at least 230 people, covered towns in mud and debris, destroyed bridges, roads, and railway lines, and submerged cars, mainly in the eastern region of Valencia.
“The degree of destruction and ruin was historic” in the Valencia region, where around 80 towns were hit by torrential rain, according to a report by the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain.
Reconstruction must “be carried out with empathy, technical rigor, and a great responsibility”, said its president Marta Vall-Llossera.
“With global warming making meteorological phenomena more intense and more frequent, architecture will have an important role to play,” she told AFP.
“We will have to build differently,” she added, recommending a return to the ‘traditional, compact Mediterranean city’.
In Spain's third largest city, Valencia, the regional capital, land has been increasingly built on, making it more vulnerable to flooding as the concrete prevents the soil from absorbing the water.
In the Valencian suburb of Paiporta, the disaster's epicenter, roads were quickly transformed into torrents of mud that swept away everything in their path.
“We must try to renaturalize the cities, reduce the use of cars, make the cobblestones less hard, more permeable, and better able to withstand the intense heat and torrential rain,” said Vall-Llossera.
- 'Forced expropriation' -
A flood risk prevention plan was approved in the Valencia region in 2003. Still, it is not binding and has “no retroactive effects”, said Maria Jesus Romero Aloy, a specialist in urban planning law at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
Valencia represents only 5% of the Spanish territory at risk of flooding, but according to the plan, it has already seen 20% of the heavy rainfall recorded in the country's last decade.
The greatest risk of flooding is concentrated in 12% of the region - where the popular beach resort of Benidorm is located - and affects 600,000 people.
In this area, the authorities recommend that houses have watertight windows and an internal staircase with access to the roof to allow escape from flash floods.
However, Romero Aloy said that it is necessary to “rethink the territorial model and consider removing buildings or facilities that face a high risk” of flooding.
Currently, property owners are allowed to rebuild on flooded land, even in a high-risk zone.
The only way to avoid this is through a “forced expropriation”, as happened in 2019 in Onteniente, a municipality about 85 kilometers (50 miles) south of Valencia.
There, “a neighborhood was eliminated” and turned into a floodway, a channel reserved for the passage of flood waters, said Romero Aloy.
- Natural barriers
The mayors, however, “are reluctant to expropriate” because it is a “complicated political decision”, especially when the country is facing a housing deficit, she added.
However, a month after the floods, “there is a growing awareness among decision-makers”, said Federico Jesus Bonet Zapater, a specialist in civil engineering, canals, and ports who advises the Valencia regional government.
“The projects to build dams or divert canals, which have been discussed for some time, will finally be studied,” he added.
Rafael Delgado Artes, an expert in regional planning and risk prevention, recommends the creation of “natural barriers”, such as forests, to minimize the damage caused by floods and “artificial beds to divert the rivers away from the city centers”.
In the center of Valencia, which was spared the October disaster, the river that runs through the city was diverted after devastating floods in 1957 and in its place, there is a popular urban park.
we/ds/imm/tw
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