The Consell has given the green light to an investment of 8.7 million euros for the second phase of emergency works at the Buseo dam, under regional jurisdiction, and at the same time has demanded from Pedro Sánchez's Executive the approval of emergency plans in the face of the "risk of rupture" in the 18 reservoirs that depend on the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ).
This was indicated by the spokesperson for the Consell, Miguel Barrachina, at the press conference following the plenary meeting, where the declaration of emergency was ratified, assigning 8,746,247 euros to the contracting of repair and reinforcement works included in the second phase of intervention at the Buseo dam, following the damage caused by the storm in October 2024.
This new stage of the works aims to increase the safety of the infrastructure by repairing the damages suffered and modernizing the control and surveillance systems, with the purpose of minimizing the risk in future episodes of torrential rains.
Barrachina emphasized that, after the storm, the Generalitat carried out a first phase of emergency actions, now completed, which allowed for the restoration of access roads to the dam, the establishment of a new road to the foot of the infrastructure, the stabilization of the right abutment and the cliff, the replacement of safety elements at the crown, the restoration of the supply pipe, and the implementation of the Emergency Plan.
In this second phase, structural reinforcement works of the dam body and the two abutments will be undertaken, the construction of a reinforcement ring at the foot of the dam, the rehabilitation of the three intakes, the improvement of the emergency plan and the systems for monitoring and controlling floods, in addition to interventions on access and other safety elements.
The works now authorized are part of the overall recovery process of the Buseo dam following the damage caused by the storm. Once this second phase is completed, a third intervention is planned, with a maximum joint budget of 35 million euros, aimed at increasing the drainage capacity of the dam against extraordinary floods, once the definitive technical solution is finalized.
Barrachina has emphasized that Buseo is "the first reservoir in the Valencian Community that has managed to implement its emergency plan in the event of a rupture risk." In contrast, he pointed out that "the 18 dams of the CHJ, therefore, owned by the government of Pedro Sánchez, are in the Valencian Community without implementing their emergency plan, the one that would allow saving lives downstream of each of the reservoirs."
"All of them, the 18 reservoirs of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, owned by the government of Pedro Sánchez, have spent the four years they were given to implement it without doing so," the spokesperson added.