Key statement from the Confederation's president on DANA: "I proposed sending the alert more than two hours earlier."

ValenciaThe president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHX), Miguel Polo, stated this Friday to the judge investigating the criminal case into the management of the DANA that before the first long break in the Cecopio meeting - the stoppage occurred at 6:00 p.m. - he had already called senior officials from the Valencian Government's Emergency Department - which ran until 8:11 p.m. - to address the delicate situation at the Forata reservoir. This was explained to ARA by sources present at the statement, who also detailed that Polo said that when the emergency committee and leaders of state agencies such as the CHX and Aemet resumed at 7:00 p.m., they found out that the alert had not yet been disseminated. Someone called: "But I didn't say? Half an hour later, in a telephone conversation with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, the president of the Confederation continued to complain that at the Cecopio "no one was making any decisions or doing anything."

In his statement as a witness, Miguel Polo also asserted that during that fateful afternoon, the former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, expressed her ignorance of how an emergency is managed, even asking senior officials in her department why the situation had been declared as a maximum. He also explained that the PP leader doubted whether she had the legal capacity to take measures that would limit or recommend reducing population mobility. Although they may be surprising, the words of the president of the Confederation confirm the ignorance that Pradas herself claimed before the judge on the day of her statement as a defendant, in which she was interpreted as an argument seeking judicial exoneration, despite damaging her public image.

"The flow of the ravine was not relevant"

Miguel Polo had more difficulty explaining how information was managed regarding the situation in the Poio ravine, whose overflow caused most of the deaths. He said he learned of the ravine's intense flooding around 6:45 p.m. when he was notified by personnel from the agency he heads. The SAIH [Automatic Hydrological Information System]recorded a sudden increase in the flow of the ravine at 6:43 p.m. which rose to 1,686 cubic meters per second due to extreme rainfall recorded in Turís, where 185 l/m² were registered in one hour. In this regard, he argued that the rapidity of the flooding in the ravines requires that measures to protect the population be adopted based on the rain forecasts (in the province of Valencia, the red alert was in effect since early this morning) and not based on the data provided by systems such as the SAIH, which, according to Polo, are designed for the ravine.

Polo's arguments have not convinced the Public Prosecutor's Office, which has insisted on asking why the CHX did not send warning emails to the Generalitat between 4:15 p.m. - when the ravine had a flow rate of 28.7 m³/second - and 6:48 p.m. -1. This is the alleged "information blackout" denounced by the Valencian government. The hydrographic manager argued that this information was "not relevant" because there was no room for reaction and because it would have been redundant, given that it is available at all times on the Civil Protection Alert Network and on the SAIH itself, which can be consulted online. It also argued that it should have reached the Cecopio via another route, referring to the Emergency workers. In fact, in a previous statement to the judge, technicians from the Generalitat admitted having read the 6:43 p.m. email, but justified not notifying the emergency committee of the flooding of the Poio ravine because the Confederation was already in the meeting.

The technicians' forgetfulness was also encouraged. due to lack of means And because from 5 to 6 p.m. alone, 112 received 2,438 phone calls alerting them to the situation. Cecopio didn't realize what was happening until after 7 p.m., when the first images and phone calls from mayors began arriving. In the last question on this topic, Polo explained that three Confederation employees were responsible for deciding whether or not to notify Emergencies with an additional email about the situation on the promenade.

Protests at the courts

At the entrance to the Catarroja courthouse, Miguel Polo was greeted by a dozen relatives of victims and those affected, who booed him. Regarding this situation, the president of the CHX acknowledged that "coming to testify in these conditions is not pleasant." However, he added that he was "not afraid" because he had "nothing to hide."