The president of the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS), Mario Urrea, along with the water commissioner, Ana María Arenas, and the head of Hydrology and Environment of the CHS, Ginés Toral, presented to the residents of Letur the plan of possible actions designed by the basin organization to minimize the risk of floods in the municipality of Albacete.
Among the solutions proposed by the CHS are the creation of an upstream dam and reservoir for water retention and, on the other hand, the reconfiguration and extension of the existing urban channel, as reported by the CHS in a press release.
The head of Hydrology at the CHS explained these proposals to the residents, as after considering various alternatives, the technical, environmental, economic, and geomorphological studies have concluded that these are the ones that best suit the needs of the municipality of Letur to prevent the consequences seen in the DANA event of October 2024.
In this way, the solutions shared with the residents foresee action at two specific points in the municipality. On one hand, 7 kilometers upstream from the urban center of Letur with the creation of a dam and water retention reservoir. This infrastructure would have the capacity to retain a volume of about 2 hm2 of water and could laminate the runoff from 85% of the watershed in the municipality.
On the other hand, the basin organization has concluded that it is necessary to act within the urban center of Letur to prevent the water flowing through the stream that crosses the population from having devastating effects in episodes of heavy rain, providing it with greater hydraulic capacity.
For this reason, the Confederation proposes to the residents to act with greater width and uniform slope along the entire stretch, as well as to extend the channel at the entrance of the town.
These solutions are not final, but they represent a significant starting point to work with both the residents of Letur and the other administrations involved in achieving a lower vulnerability to the risk of flooding in the municipality.
For this reason, the CHS wanted to hear the opinions of the residents gathered at the local school, who, after the presentation by the technical staff of the basin organization, provided various suggestions that the members of the Confederation took note of for analysis and subsequent feedback to the residents.
Among them, the residents expressed the need to further minimize the flow that could pass through the urban core, review the studies to ensure that the 100% capacity of watershed contributions can be managed properly.
After the analysis, the CHS has committed to hold a new meeting soon to present the new options, and its president conveyed the commitment of both the basin organization and the MITECO, which will provide the necessary budgets, «to find the best solution together so that at least, if an event of the magnitude of the one that occurred on October 29, 2024 is repeated, the runoff can be laminated and managed without causing significant damage to property, and most importantly, to people.»
The presentation was also attended by the mayor of Letur, the SG of water protection and risk management at the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Javier Sánchez, the director of the coordination and Boosting office of the DANA, Roger Llanes, and technicians from the consulting company Hermanos Garrote.