SPAIN’S environment minister says that climate change was mainly to blame for the Valencia flood disaster, as she defended the government’s handling of the response to it.
Speaking to Congress, Teresa Ribera also blamed Valencian president Carlos Mazon for ‘not knowing how to respond to the DANA’.
Ribera stated that long-delayed additional flood defences in Valencia province would most likely not have prevented the worst flood-related disaster in Spain’s history as they had been designed for smaller catastrophes.
RIBERA IN CONGRESS
Such works ‘would have been clearly insufficient to contain that torrent of floodwater’, she stated.
The minister however admitted that they could have limited the impact of a deluge that killed at least 220 people, swept away bridges and roads, and destroyed thousands of homes.
The opposition conservative Partido Popular(PP) meanwhile has accused Ribera of inaction and neglecting her duties.
There has been criticism that it took days for Madrid to deploy thousands of troops and extra police officers to help in rescue and recovery efforts.
The national government says the Valencian administration led by the PP’s Carlos Mazon had to take responsibility for a slow response to weather warnings.
Mazon has said the information he received was ‘insufficient, inaccurate and late’ to issue an emergency alert to residents.
Theresa Ribera said Spain must improve its officials’ capacity to respond to the increasing threat of climate events.
“Action protocols, regulations and alerts must be adapted to climate risk.”
In a swipe at the Valencian government, she added: “It is of little use to have all the necessary information if those who have to respond do not know how to do so.”
The minister said that up to 11 calls were made from state weather forecaster Aemet to Valencia’s Civil Protection authority and that the Jucar water authority sent more than a 100 emails on October 29- the day when the storms and floods hit.
