Some 473,000 people live in the areas with the highest risk of flooding in Spain

The figure rises to almost 700,000 if the basins that are not managed by the central government are also counted.

About 473,000 people live in the areas with greater flood risk in Spainareas that flood, on average, once every ten years, according to data managed by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco), which estimates that nearly 2.7 million in total live in floodplains.

The flood directive requires drawing up three probability scenarios in which the “return periods”, that is, the time that passes until the next flood can occurThe deputy general director of Water Protection and Risk Management of Miteco, Francisco Javier Sánchez Martínez, told Efe.

These three return periods are 10, 100 and 500 years, a formula that according to Sánchez Martínez it would be advisable to modifysince it does not consider that it is useful to get an idea of ​​the real risk that a home or a place of special importance – a hospital, a school, a nursing home, etc. – will flood.

According to these calculations, 2.7 million residents in Spain live in areas that are likely to flood once every 500 years.

But then, argues Sánchez Martínez, one can think that if your home flooded a hundred years ago it will not happen again in this century “and, in the end, that turns against us.” “We want to talk more about the probabilities of occurrence,” emphasizes the expert.

There could be almost 700,000 in reality.

According to Miteco management plans, There are 473,000 people who live in flood zones once every 10 yearsthe areas with the highest risk of flooding in Spain.

However, Sánchez Martínez insists, this means that the home “can flood three or four times in a year, that is, it is simply a statistical matter.”

In any case, these data only refer to the inter-community basins, which are the ones that are the responsibility of Miteco, so if the other basins are added, It is estimated that the number of inhabitants in higher risk areas may rise to around 700,000.

In Spain, floods are, after heat waves, the second natural phenomenon that causes the most deaths: In the last 30 years, about 300 people have died as a result of floods, according to Miteco.

The consequences of building in flood zones

The high level of danger in this country has to do, according to Julio Barea, head of Greenpeace’s Water campaign, with the fact that “we have built on flood-prone areas by invading riverbed areas” and this, “unfortunately, has its consequences.”

Since the beginning of the century, the meteorological phenomena that cause the most fatalities are high temperatures (28%), followed by floods (20%) and maritime storms (17%), notes Civil Protection in a 2021 report, in which it alleges that “81.2% of deaths due to natural risks in 2020 were due to meteorological phenomena.”

Assuming that the world continues on the most continuous path of greenhouse gas emissions and leads to the less encouraging future that the international scientific community is considering (the RCP 8.5 scenario), Miteco estimates that 19% of the so-called Risk Areas Significant Flood Potential (ARPSIs) have a “highly significant” impact; as a consequence of the climate crisis and that 29% suffer a significant impact.

“That is, practically half of the ARPSIs may have significant impacts derived from climate change,” states the ministry’s management plan.

The cost of floods

In 2019 alone, the Insurance Compensation Consortium, an entity that depends on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, allocated 300 million euros in compensation for floods in the urban area.

As the meteorologist and deputy director of studies and international relations at the CCS, Francisco Espejo, explained to EFE, the volume of compensation for floods has almost “tripled” in the last five decadesalthough it is true that the number of insured assets is now almost three times greater.

The bulk of the costs assumed by this entity, 87%, are intended to cover damage from floods and atypical cyclonic storms, said Espejo.

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