The N-340 road near Alcanar Platja, an urbanization in Alcanar between Les Cases d’Alcanar and La Ràpita, this Sunday after the storm.Quique García (EFE)
The mayor of Alcanar (Montsià), Joan Roig, says that his municipality has “declared three disaster areas” due to the floods of 2018, 2021 and 2023. A situation that has officially changed its name: they are now declared areas affected by Emergency Civil Protection (ZAEPC). “The regulations stipulate that the state of emergency does not end until the city returns to normal, i.e. the situation from the day before the downpour.” And you see, there is overlap here, the aid takes years and does not cover everything that is needed.” , he complains. After the 2021 storm, she warned that she had not received the aid for 2018. And now the one for 2021 has not arrived. In June the Generalitat issued the appeal for help for 2.4 million euros and the case is still not resolved. On Sunday, Alcanar, where it is built at the foot of a mountain range from which 10 torrents originate, once again recorded more than 200 liters of rainfall in just a few hours, becoming, as in 2021 and 2018, one of the epicenters of the Dana-induced disaster Damage.
The number of euros received by the city council as a result of the 2021 declaration is zero. The procedure angers mayors, who face a crossroads of paperwork that overburdens city technicians and transfers citizen pressure to city councilors, “with rains that have nothing to do with the administration of the city council,” says Roig. Here is the example from 2021: The ZEAPC declaration on the storms of September 1st was signed by the Council of Ministers on the 21st of the same month. Mayors must then submit to the Ministry of Development the list of damage to equipment, public spaces or infrastructure, as well as the estimate for repairs. Once the amount is approved, half will be paid by the Council and the other half by the government, except in Catalonia, where the funds are transferred and managed by the Generalitat. In this case, the agreement between the Government and the Generalitat was signed in December 2022 (16 months after the gargoyle). And it was only in June (almost two years later) that the Generalitat called for grants. Another three months have passed and they have not been granted. When asked about the delay, the Presidential Department, through a spokesperson, responds with the list of procedures that the administration must carry out once the agreement is signed: transfer of funds to the Generalitat, generation of credits for the budget approved by the economy, report on the fundamentals of the appeal for help, publication of the basic principles in the official gazette and opening of the appeal.
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Meanwhile, in Alcanar, the football field is still without grass, the sports hall is doing what they can because it was damaged, and 80% of the streets in the city are damaged. And how was what was billed paid for? “Well, when we went into debt, we came into 2019 with 1.5 million left, and now we’re at the debt limit and can’t make any real investments in the next decade because everything will be fixing the infrastructure.” What it is on the one hand What costs you from one side is what you get from the other, and you have to cut subsidies, cultural events, that’s annoying,” says the mayor.
And there is another problem, adds the mayor of Ulldecona, just 12 kilometers away, Núria Ventura: “After signing the agreement with the government, the Generalitat’s criteria for granting aid are more restrictive and do not grant aid for unpaved roads , the “they.” are a very important part of the damage.” “This is not Barcelona, in rural areas the roads are not there to spend Sunday in the mountains: they connect fields or farms. How do you tell a neighbor that he can’t feed his animals?” Remember: in 2018, the damages in Ulldecona amounted to 1.5 million euros. Of the 750,000 that the ministry transferred to the Generalitat, only 150,000 were granted as aid, the rest had to be returned,” he says. “If it’s embarrassing for the people who hear it, it’s annoying for us,” he sighs. This municipality has taken the government’s criteria to court and is in the hands of the Supreme Court of Catalonia. In the case of Alcanar, of the eight million in 2018, only 800,000 euros in grants were granted, i.e. 10%, explains Roig. Both he and Ventura asked this Monday from the Generalitat councilors more flexibility and a change in the criteria for aid to include unpaved roads.
The floods of 2018 and 2021 had such an impact that sometimes miracles work and authorities roll up their sleeves when faced with shocking cases. In Ulldecona, the cleaning of the La Foia plain, where the ravines flowing down from the Godall Mountains are located, with those flowing down from the Montsià Mountains, was financed with the help and a loan from the Provincial Government of Tarragona. In Alcanar, during the emergency work at the port, “the Catalan Water Authority (ACA), the Generalitat and Costas came together very quickly, one carried out the project, another the work and it was corrected because it was essential for the municipality “, says the mayor. When asked if they are considering requesting help from Next Generation European, Roig assures that they do not have the capacity to manage it: “We are not even thinking about it.”
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The advisers of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, and of the Interior Ministry, Joan Ignasi Elena, visited the area this Monday and promised help, without concreteness: “After the assessment, we will see what possibilities of recovery and assistance we can do, although this is not the case the case is.” enough. We need to see what investments and future elements we need to make to avoid such serious impacts in this province,” they explained.
Help from the Generalitat for entrepreneurs
For entrepreneurs, in 2021 there was direct and non-repayable aid from the Generalitat for shops and operations in Alcanar. They were between 3,000 and 8,000 euros. One of the beneficiaries was Mario Sancho, owner of a shipping company in Les Cases d’Alcanar. He remembers “the very serious damage” from that time, more so than last Sunday’s storm, and that the help helped replace the building’s destroyed door. At the Racó del Port restaurant right by the sea, Rosa Maria Sancho explains that the damage was enormous at the time because the water swept away tree trunks, cars and everything that came in its way. “We had to build a kitchen, bathroom, terrace,” he calculated, costing 8,000 euros. This Monday he received a visit from the representative of the insurance consortium first thing in the morning. Sancho regrets that the wall of the promenade works carried out after 2021, although it measures only a few spans, harms them “because it does not drain the water directly and creates a pool and slipstream effect.”
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