Catalonia's first climate refugees: "So far we've survived, but we're trapped."

Alcanar"We looked at each other and understood everything: the only solution left was for the entire family to leave their home permanently." This is how the mayor of Alcanar, Joan Roig, describes the moment he found Dídac Pla, his wife, and their two daughters up to their waists in mud the very night of the floods. Alice The storm had just descended with great violence on this town in Montsià and other nearby towns such as Godall, Santa Bárbara, la Ràpita, Ulldecona, and Tortosa. In some of these municipalities, rainfall exceeded 250 liters per square meter, and this was the final straw: after Pla and his family have been affected by four floods in the last seven years, they are one step away from becoming the first climate refugees in Catalonia.

"We bought the house in 2010, taking out a mortgage and hoping to raise a family here. We've only lived in peace for eight years without the force of downpours coming down the street and flooding the house," says Pla, who claims that when they bought the home, built in 1978, no one warned them. Theirs isn't the only building to have been affected by flooding caused by "gotas frías"—increasingly frequent and violent as a result of the climate crisis. A total of ten families living in the Llop ravine, in the Serramar residential area of Alcanar Playa, have asked the Alcanar City Council to relocate, citing the impossibility of living in an area that has repeatedly been shown to be prone to flooding.

"We've already experienced a few floods, each in its own way, but we've never seen anything like this last one," explains Pla, referring to the rainy season less than a month ago. Although strategies for dealing with downpours are reconsidered every year, he says the torrential nature of the storm is a significant factor. Alice It has "overwhelmed" them. In a matter of minutes, their entire surroundings became "a raging sea." "With what perspective should we invest more money in fixing what has brought us down and rebuilding our lives knowing that we will lose everything again?" he asks, incredulous, sitting in front of his garden wall, still knocked over by the downpours.

Negotiations to start over

Preparations for torrential rains must be swift and efficient: quickly board up openings in the house, move cars out of the ravine so they don't get swept away by the downpour, and evacuate the family to the first floor. "I wish we had only done this the four times the floods have hit our house. But we are forced to do it several times a year because we never know when heavy rain can turn into a real disaster," he explains. This has been his life for the past seven years.

The key to all this, Pla explains, is anticipation. They no longer wait for the alert on their phones, as they remember that in 2021 they didn't receive one and the water entered their homes. They have grown accustomed to following the instructions of the Inuncat (National Institute of Unity) and constantly looking at the sky. "All these times we have survived, but that's not living. We are trapped," he emphasizes.

For this reason, both their family and nine other families from the same area have reached a "unanimous consensus" to be relocated to a safe area. From the outset, the residents assure that the City Council has given them "unconditional support," assuming the costs of relocations due to each downpour and seeking a long-term solution for each of them. However, there is still no consensus on the form that compensation for the loss of these homes should take for the owners.

"It's not the same as someone who has a second home or someone who only spends a few days a year in the house they're renting. I don't have anywhere else to go," Pla explains. This father is clear that he won't accept "any proposal" and that negotiations must be individual to assess the needs of each household. "I know I won't have a house like the one I have now, but it wouldn't be fair to start a new life far from my daughters' school and my job."

If the expropriations are carried out, these residents of Montsià will become the first registered climate displaced persons in Catalonia. This concept refers to a person forced to leave their home due to environmental changes or climate-related natural disasters that make living there dangerous or impossible.

This label, however, doesn't scare either Pla or the mayor of Alcanar, who assures that the council has been working for years to adapt to and mitigate the effects of the climate crisis. Expropriation of the homes is the last option for both parties, but at this point, there's no alternative other than renaturalizing the ravine and recirculating the water flow where it had naturally taken its place.

"We've been talking about relocating the residents of this area for so long and educating them about the consequences of the climate crisis that in the end it was they themselves who said 'enough'," says Roig, who joined the City Council shortly before the 2018 flood. Since that year, Alcanar has been recognized as such in 2021 and 2023. And at this time they have already begun the procedures for there to be a fourth: that of the ravages of the dana Alice.

Delays in aid

For now, the promised aid hasn't arrived. The city council has only received 10% of the cost of the damage caused by the 2018 downpours and is only just beginning to receive aid for the 2023 floods. "This leaves you completely out of the game: we haven't had time to repair the damage in 2018, and we've already been flooded three times as much," said the regional authorities, especially the Generalitat.

However, the mayor regrets that the European Union has not included the concept of climate refugee in its regulatory framework, which makes it difficult to demand this type of aid and to monitor people forced to leave their homes due to climate change. "It's unbelievable. These citizens need legal protection due to a phenomenon we're already experiencing," he argues.

Despite the financial deficit and the lack of European legal support, the Alcanar City Council has also been trying for years to anticipate the impacts of the climate crisis with a plan that is almost unique in Catalonia. They have implemented land adaptation projects, such as the lamination pond—which collects excess water during heavy rains and gradually releases it afterwards—the expansion of the natural outlet of one of the ravines, and the restoration of natural areas to improve water drainage.

On the other hand, Roig highlights the educational work and advice from the scientific community that has been carried out in recent years through talks and meetings. Furthermore, in 2023, a technical panel made up of fifteen specialists was created to develop urban planning, policy, and social proposals to improve Alcanar's resilience to the consequences of the climate crisis.