While the controversy over water currently stems from the management of reserves—less than meeting increased demand—new precipitation schemes in Spain have increased the risk of flooding and flooding. Less rain falls, but more concentrated, that is, with more violence.
The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the flood risk management plans for the demarcations occupied by several autonomous communities: Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Tagus, Yucari, Segura, Duero, Occidental Cantabria, Ebro -except Galicia-Costa-. According to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, more than 2.5 million people live in the flood zone in these areas.
This risk affects more than half a million people in both the Guadalquivir and Segura River demarcations and another 495,000 in the Yucari River demarcation. More than 250,000 people are at risk in the Ebro and Duero. Western Cantabria has 149,000 inhabitants, Guadiana 73,000, Tagus 52,000, Galicia 42,000 and Mino-Sil a further 29,000. The calculation ends with 9,900 people in Melilla and 958 in Ceuta.
Plans must deal with this new climate reality, which has intensified one of the natural disasters with the highest casualties in Spain. “Increasing the study of the impact of climate change is a priority to prepare for its worst impacts.
A week ago, Third Vice President Teresa Ribera stressed that hydrological planning must already take these patterns into account: “We must be prepared for extreme droughts and severe floods.” The State Meteorological Agency in its Rnotes how the rains are becoming more torrential in Spain.
In fact, the very intense rainfall of December 2022 left almost as much water in ten days as in the usual thirty days of that month, but it brought considerable material damage in Extremadura or Andalusia due to flooding and, worse, a fatality in Salamanca.
In this sense, the plans allocate 55 million euros to the agency to develop a radar observation network to try to respond “to the needs of forecasting extreme weather phenomena with maximum accuracy”, says Ecological Transition.
Another idea they are developing is to use nature as a buffer, based on increasing riparian space, i.e. giving space to rivers, restoring habitat such as riparian forests that hold the land before the water passes, or creating. Floodplains – where water flows in a smoother and more controlled way to prevent damage.
Spain is particularly vulnerable to flooding due to erosion, deforestation and land occupation. This makes even the same amount of rain do more damage. Sections at risk of flooding reach almost 12,000 kilometers.
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Source: El Diario
