DANA has left a great challenge. And it is in the Albufera

214. If two weeks after the DANA that devastated the province of Valencia there is one piece of information that helps understand the extent of its devastation, it is this: 214. The number of deaths. And it is probably not a closed balance, taking into account that at the national level there are still more than thirty missing people. However, the cold drop leaves other balances. Tragic too. The downpour hit the infrastructure, transport, economy and natural environment of the Valencian Community hard. So much and so viciously, that there are those who already fear its impact on two of the great icons of the region: the Albufera and its rice fields.

It is the other effect of DANA.

“50 years of poisoned rice?” The phrase is from Eva Tudela, from Acció Ecologista-Agró, who a few days ago shared on RTVE her concern about the impact of DANA on the Albufera Natural Park and its rice fields. Their fear is not so much for the direct consequences of the cold drop as for the domino effect that could arise from the trail of destruction left by the flood. The underlying question is quite simple: where have the tons of waste washed away by the floods gone? And what effects will they have if they are not removed?

These are not whimsical questions if one takes into account that the Poyo ravine, infamous as a result of the DANA, flows into the Albufera. And it does so with both the water and the waste that the flood dragged in its path. “The overflow of the ravine has washed away millions of kilos of plastic now scattered throughout the rice fields and the Albufera itself, and at some point they will have to be removed. If not, farmers are going to work the fields and incorporate them into the soil,” Tudela warned before. to leave out a question: “Our rice is going to be grown here next year. Are we going to be poisoned with plastic for 50 years?”

“Full of plastics and other waste”. The phrase is once again from Tudela, who tells RTVE how when he went with his colleagues to the area to help clean the ditches, he found a worrying scene. “La Albufera is full of plastics and other more toxic waste derived from vehicle fuels, coolants, brake fluids, medicine boxes… Everything is floating in the water.” She is not the only one who warns of the legacy of DANA.

Javier Jiménez, a biologist who has been working in the wetland for two decades, spoke directly of “environmental catastrophe” last week on SER. “This requires a reset of the natural park.” In the background, the same concern that Tudela shared: the plastics and other waste washed away by the downpours of last October 29. “We need to do a reconstruction on a landfill, here we have a huge job ahead of us,” summarized the expert.

Another biologist, Miguel Rodilla Alamá, from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), warned Europa Press days ago about the polluting liquids that leak from cars or factories, the “most serious”, he warned, even though they are not “perceptible.” Rodilla also drew attention to other key aspects: the loss of size of the Albufera due to the destruction of terraces by the current, in addition to the “large contribution” of mud reaching the wetland, “which is increasingly shallower.”

The challenge of wastewater treatment plants. There would be another key. DANA not only dragged mud, plastics and garbage in its path. As I remembered recently The Country It also affected the purification network. In the middle of last week, half of the systems in the province of Valencia were still out of action, meaning they could not prevent sewage and urban water from ending up in the Júcar or Turia.

Today the newspaper Levante updated the data, citing data from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Provincial Council and the Generalitat: although there are 96 treatment plants that were already operational yesterday, there are still a dozen that function only partially and 13 remain destroyed. What’s more, there are three of them that will have to be completely rebuilt. The authorities estimate that the carried mud has affected the sewers of more than thirty towns.

The impact on agriculture. The rice fields stand out for their importance in the region and because, as the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation itself recalls, of the 21,000 hectares of the Albufera, about 15,000 are occupied by rice fields. However, they are not the only farms that look closely at the effects of DANA. Already on October 30, just 24 hours after the downpour on the 29th, farmers showed their fear of the million-dollar losses to their crops, including the “thousands” of hectares dedicated to citrus and persimmon plantations.

The downpour also punished some areas of Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia, which has already led the Ministry of Agriculture to announce more than 440 million euros to help affected farmers and ranchers. In the case of the rice fields of Catalonia and Valencia, Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias clarified to the Efe agency that production had not been affected because the harvesting “has already ended.” The key, as Eva Tudela points out on RTVE, would be in the garbage that has reached the irrigated fields after the passage of DANA.

“It’s still early”. There are also voices that encourage waiting before assessing the environmental impact of DANA on the wetland. Among them Ignacio Moncho, from the Assut Foundation, who in the middle of last week recalled that it was still too early to speak “with certainty” about short- or long-term consequences.

“The main impact that there may be, more than the issue of water quality and environmental impact, is the large contribution of waste that is arriving.” Authorities are also monitoring the impact of the cold drop. The public wastewater sanitation entity plans to carry out inspections in 1,300 facilities to control discharges and possible contamination risks and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition also carries out water analysis.

Images | ESA Earth Observation (X) and Juan Antonio Durán Corpas (Flickr)

In WorldOfSoftware | DANA left thousands of Valencians without coverage or connection. We already know how they are going to be compensated.