“If the tragedy was due to someone’s negligence, why is the government finally taking over the Poyo project?”

He executive president and director of EL ESPAÑOL, Pedro J. Ramírezopened this Thursday the second day of the IV Economic Forum of the Valencian Community, organized by the newspaper and its verticals Invertia and DISRUPTORES.

The year following DANA which left 230 dead, he centered his speech in which, in reference to the recent resignation of former regional president Carlos Mazón, Several questions were asked to invite participants to reflect.

“If the tragedy was “the negligence of one” – the one who is no longer here – why do all the residents of South Horta tremble when they receive an Es-Alert for possible flooding“How did this happen again last Sunday?” » he questioned.

A second question: “Why did the heavy rains in September arouse fear, which once again caused the ravines of “ground zero” to overflow, as the mayors of Paiporta (PSOE) and Utiel (PP) told us yesterday in this forum with identical demands?

And a third: ““If the tragedy was due to someone’s negligence, why did the Spanish government, after years of inaction, finally resume the project?”

In relation to the above, Pedro J. stated that “We are not going to fall into the trap of the President of the Government, who went so far as to say that “one person’s negligence caused a real tragedy.” There is a presumed interest in concentrating all responsibilities in the management of the Generalitat. The Ventorro is the finger and the Poyo is the moon. El Ventorro is the tree and Poyo is the forest.

Pedro J. Ramírez also did not want to miss the opportunity to talk about one of the news known recently, the opening of the procedure to carry out the long-awaited works of the Poyo ravinethe one who caused the most deaths in this fateful episode.

“The latter is good news. And I take this opportunity to thank Zulima Pérez, the government commissioner of DANA, and the technical director of the CHJ, Manuel Torán, for coming to explain the new project to this forum. Also invited were Diana Morant and Pilar Bernabé, who declined our invitation,” he warned.

But the deadlines set by the government “leave us with great concern, because what Miteco has done is to start from scratch.” The CHJ recognized this Wednesday in this forum that the work to divert and channel the Poyo will not begin until shortly before 2030. “This raised another question in this regard: Can Dana’s “ground zero” wait that long? “Is it fair to subject a population that has suffered so much to six more autumns of fear?”

Ramírez alluded to the special that EL ESPAÑOL made on the occasion of the anniversary of the tragedy. “We encrypt the revealing statement of Federico Bonet, former technical director of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), who is the one who explained in Les Corts Valencianes that there were three major floods this tragic October 29, 2024, all three of very similar violence: that of the Turia river, that of the Magro river and that of the ravines of the Poyo basin.”

Thus, he declared that “Inexplicably, no administration had broken down death data of each flood, something essential to understanding and fixing what went wrong. We did it.”

200 deaths for Poyo

It should be remembered that this information revealed that the flooding of the Turia river, protected by a diversion from the southern plan of Valencia, had caused six deaths; that of the Magro river, protected by the Forata dam, caused 17; seven other people died in hospital; and all other deaths, “The terrible round figure of 200 deaths is due to the overflowing of the ravines of the Poyo basin.. This represents 90% of the total,” said Pedro J. “In Paiporta alone, the bottleneck of Poyo, 46 ​​people died,” he added.

The director of EL ESPAÑOL did not hesitate to affirm that “Of course, receiving an alert in time would have been a big help to the population, but what would have really protected it would have been the detours and channels that the experts had planned and which were never executed.

However, Pedro J. pointed out that the two diversions from the Poyo to the Turia River only cost 119 million. And the three actions of channeling and drying the ravines of the basin, i.e. an additional 109 million. “These five projects, designed to avoid disasters like the one that occurred, only required 228 million euros to be invested in three years. These 228 million were able to avoid the 20,000 people estimated to bear the material cost of the tragedy, in addition to irreparable deaths,” he stressed.

In the front row he listened to the speech of the new director of EL ESPAÑOL President of the Generalitat, Juan Francisco Pérez Llorcawho, the day before, had met the president of the government Pedro Sánchez.

“The result obtained this Wednesday is another example. Pedro Sánchez accepted the creation of the mixed commission that he had rejected for 14 months to coordinate the response of administrations to the dana. He recalled Pedro J. as the new president He promised a new stage “far from confrontation, mud politics, insults and disqualification.”

“Now is the time to fulfill the word given, president. But, from the outset, it seemed to me an omen of moderation and consensus that the inauguration took place without new transfers to Vox. Or that his first words were to apologize to the victims of DANA,” he said.

“As I pointed out on the occasion of our anniversary, Ortega linked elegance to the feeling of confinement: “Be fire, but look like alabaster,” concluded Pedo J.

Regarding the event, Pedro J. said that this IV edition of the Economic Forum of the Valencian Community is called ‘The Valencian Community which comes “with the aim of looking forward”.

“The Valencian Community is coming”

“The Valencians are already doing it. Despite the misfortune, the economy continued to grow. There was only a slight slowdown that reduced growth to 1.5% in the last quarter of 2024. But even in those moments, the Valencian economy grew,” he said.

Pedro J. Ramírez concluded his speech by giving his opinion on what the “future Valencian Community” represents for him: “It is that of the flood-prone park planned by the Generalitat Valenciana”; “is the Roig Arena, a large pavilion promoted by Juan Roig which debuted with 40 exhausted in less than a year”; “it is that of Nealis, a family business which took advantage of its 150th anniversary to become a large holding company which aspires to achieve 1,000 million turnover and reach 10,000 employees”.

It is also “that of Consum, the largest cooperative in Spain, with a turnover of more than 5 billion and 23,000 employees; “it is a self-sufficient Valencia in terms of water supply when the great plan of Mayor Catalá is executed to take advantage of the immense aquifer that exists under the city, comparable in Europe only to that of Paris”; and “it is that of the PAI del Grao that Atitlan is promoting to urbanize this entire old industrial area in which we find ourselves.”

Lanzadera, Global Omnium, Veolia, Mapfre, Prezero, Vithas VIU, are some others 40 protagonists of the IV edition of this Economic Forum on “The Coming Valencian Community”, “in which we find ourselves once again alongside the Valencian company with the celebration of the greatest economic and political event that takes place in this territory”, concluded Pedro J.