Mazón presents a 29 billion dollar plan following the DANA and calls for a joint water company with the State.

This morning, Valencian President Carlos Mazón presented what has been his crux of the road to continued leadership of the Valencian Government despite harsh criticism and protests against his management of the DANA (National Urban Development Plan): the Plan for Economic and Social Recovery. The plan, dubbed Endavant , includes the creation of a joint venture between the Valencian Government and the central government to undertake the waterworks necessary to prevent floods like the ones we experienced from happening again. Representatives of Pedro Sánchez's government did not attend the event, suggesting that they will not put a red carpet under its implementation.

Mazón's flagship plan, announced 244 days after the floodwaters claimed the lives of 228 people , depends in part on the goodwill of Pedro Sánchez's central government , something that, given the current lack of coordination and dialogue, seems more than complicated.

According to the Second Vice President and Minister for Reconstruction, Francisco Gan Pampols, the total amount of the 339 measures included in the plan amounts to 29 billion euros , of which the Valencian Government would assume 14.5 billion , while the General State Administration would contribute 12.6 billion . The remainder would correspond to private companies, such as water service concessionaires or telecommunications and energy operators.

The former lieutenant general chosen by Mazón to design this plan, in which PwC and Tragsatec participated , acknowledged that " either a miracle happens or we're going to have to keep asking for it and go into debt ," although he insisted that it's a matter of will after the worst natural disaster of this century in Spain.

Of the 339 measures, ranging from water resources measures to regulatory changes, aid and tax incentives, and new emergency protocols and training for the public, 266 are the sole responsibility of the Generalitat , another 21 are the sole responsibility of the State , 11 are the responsibility of local councils, and 8 are the responsibility of the private sector. In addition, 33 are shared , including some of the most vital measures that have been blocked for years.

For his part, Mazón stated that the plan includes an "infrastructure revolution in the Poyo ravine and the Magro riverbed," the areas most affected by the floods, including storm tanks and floodable parks, in addition to expanding the riverbeds and their capacity.

To this end, the PP baron proposes the creation of a joint public company between the State and the Generalitat (Catalan government) to undertake the major hydraulic works necessary to prevent a repeat of disasters like the one experienced just a few kilometers from the center of Valencia.

He also stated that the plan includes a request for the creation of a State Water Agency based in the Valencian Community and a comprehensive study in collaboration with the government to determine why the bridges failed to hold and implement solutions for the future.

To address the housing need in the affected municipalities, it will propose public-private partnerships for land development and housing construction through the creation of joint ventures in which the Valencian Housing and Land Entity (Eentidad Valenciana de Vivienda y Suelo) and developers participate . This approach was already attempted by the predecessor of this Valencian public company during previous PP governments in the Generalitat (Catalan Government), with limited success.

Among the regulatory proposals, he noted that the requirement for at least one automatic bilge pump in all public and private buildings will be included, "similar to the requirement for fire extinguishers." Furthermore, the Valencian Government plans to equate flood risk prevention with fire prevention, with planned evacuation routes and training at all levels.

Mazón again defended himself by saying that " there is no Administration in the world that has the tools to prevent a rainy episode from breaking rainfall records" and that in the last 10 years the Valencian Community had experienced 30 red alerts due to rainfall and none had had the effects of this one .

"There is no previous experience that could have prepared us for the loss of 228 human lives in an absolutely uncontrolled flood, nor for suffering the social and material devastation caused by the Poyo ravine that day," he stated, despite the fact that recent history in the province of Valencia has seen disasters such as the flood of 1957 or the Tous flood of 1982, also in October .