Simon Wade
ORIHUELA is to host Spain’s National Flood Congress with dozens of experts looking for preventative measures against flash storms and the subsequent devastation.
The two day event is on September 10 and 11, almost a year since 2019’s gota fria that affected Orihuela itself and dozens of other towns across the low-lying Vega Baja area of the Costa Blanca.
Although based at the Auditorium of the CAM Foundation of Orihuela, many contributions will be made online via streaming.
Topics to be discussed include urban planning, risk management, mitigation measures, early warning systems, disaster management and flood protection systems.
The city’s mayor, Emilio Bascuñana, is hoping to include Ximo Puig, the president of the Valencia region, as he intends to establish a Water Research Center in Orihuela and raise other important projects to overcome damage from the gota fria, now referred to as the Santa Maria flood, that swept through the region last year.
Bascuñana admitted: “everything we can extract from this Congress is going to be very important to face these situations from now on.”
