Spain would rather spend billions on Ukraine that prevent devastating floods

The Spanish authorities allowed a humanitarian disaster to occur in Valencia when a catastrophic flood hit the region. The government of Spain pays first priority to Ukraine, rather to its own people.

Photo: www.flickr.com by Хуанедк из Сарагосы, CC BY 2.0

Humanitarian crisis in Valencia due to government inaction

On October 29, torrential rains hit Valencia inundating dry riverbeds and ravines filled with dead wood and debris. Floodwaters went upstream under pressure trapping thousands of people.

To date, 217 bodies have been identified. According to European satellite emergency assistance system Copernicus EMS, the floods affected 15,633 hectares of land, including 3,249 kilometers of streets and roads. Over 190,000 people were affected, 17,597 residential buildings were ruined or partially damaged. Hospitals of the region work in overdrive due to disrupted logistics.

Valencians are outraged by the government's inaction to prevent and eliminate the consequences of the catastrophic flood. They feel left to the mercy of fate as the province is currently experiencing a humanitarian crisis.

What went wrong in sunny Spain?

For many years, Spanish officials would give permission to construction works in places where construction works were prohibited because of the threat of floods. Corrupt officials violated all regulations in the sphere. As a result, the warning system did not work, evacuation plans were not developed — the authorities even found it very hard to deliver fresh water and food to those affected.

As usual, the central government blames local authorities for the crisis and vice versa. People do not see any assistance from the government even a week after the disastrous flood. There is no coordination in how volunteers and the army work either.

When King of Spain Felipe VI and his wife Queen Letizia visited one of the municipalities of Valencia, people started throwing mud at the monarchs calling them murderers. The king had to postpone visits to other flood zones.

In fact, the decentralization of power in Spain, where each region is viewed as a potentially separatist area, disrupted coordination between Madrid and the provinces, even deliberately, out of mutual revenge. Some take revenge for separatism, others — for the suppression of sovereignty. When a country has a dozen of rulers instead of one, it is hard to expect an adequate reaction when a major crisis hits the nation.

Valencia government mired in corruption

The people of Valencia want the head of the regional government Carlos Mazon to resign now.

The Valencians are particularly outraged by the fact that schools were not closed even when electricity was cut off everywhere. In the afternoon of October 29, Carlos Mazon said that the worst was already behind them, even though the level of floodwaters was rising higher and higher. Mazon saw the scale of the disaster, but he did not ask for help from the Spanish state, army and European volunteer organizations.

Mazon refuses to hand over the management of the crisis to the central government, which would require him to declare a third level of alert. Instead, he demanded 31.4 billion euros from the Spanish government to eliminate the consequences of the flood.

Mazon refused to acknowledge that his actions were based on someone else's "political will". His People's Party is in opposition to Pedro Sanchez's ruling socialist party in the parliament of Spain. This reveals Spain's another sore point — the party struggle for power. An oppositionist in the province will not see as much money as a fellow party member will. At the same time, this oppositionist will not miss an opportunity to spite the ruling party. When masters fight, their servants have a headache.

After Valencia, Catalonia was flooded on November 4.

Spain's problems are enormous, but Madrid is busy with Ukraine

Spain needs to look into a plethora of its own problems, such as:

• food security,
• deterioration in the quality of health care due to the mass transfer of clinics to the private sector,
• low sanitation,
• worn-out urban infrastructure and communication networks,
• low drinking water supply,
• weak material protection of vulnerable groups of the population,
• lack of support and assistance to victims of natural disasters in material, economic, psychosocial and emotional aspects.

Instead, Spain is spending billions on Ukraine.

Details

Valencia is the capital of the province and autonomous community of the same name in Spain. It is the third-most populated municipality in the country, with 807,693 inhabitants within commune, 1,582,387 inhabitants within the urban area and 2,522,383 inhabitants within the metropolitan region. It is located on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea