Just THREE of 30 urgent flood defences have been built in Alicante province after two decades of waiting

FLOOD defences approved by the Valencian government to avoid damage from storms have only partially been completed nearly 20 years later.

Three out of every four measures present in the Territorial Action Plan on Flood Risk Prevention in the Valencian Community (Patricova), passed in 2003, have still not been carried out.

It comes as Spain’s Insurance Compensation Consortium have today estimated it will pay out €15.3 million in damages after receiving 11,630 claims following storm Gloria’s assault on the Valencian Community.

The defence works include construction of containment dams and bridges; the re-channeling of rivers; improvement of roads; and demolition of infrastructure that prevents the passage of water during torrential rainfall.

The province of Alicante has performed the worst out of the Valencian Community’s three provinces. Out of 30 pending works, just three have been completed since 2003.

One of the main projects concerns better channeling of the Gorgos river, which nearly burst its banks in Javea on the Costa Blanca following intense rainfall upstream in the Marina Alta last week.

In Castellón, just three of 17 works have been completed, while in Valencia the majority of operations have already been carried out successfully.