"It's not allowed to throw mud, silt and objects into the sewer system." On Friday, December 6, this warning message was broadcast repeatedly from a loudspeaker mounted on a military vehicle, echoing through the dusty, semi-deserted streets of Paiporta. This town was the epicenter of the tragic floods that devastated the Valencia region on October 29, leaving 222 people dead and four missing. Nearly 40 days have passed since torrential rains upstream caused massive flooding, devastating several towns in Valencia's southern suburbs. Life is far from back to normal.

Hundreds of residents have abandoned their destroyed homes to seek refuge with relatives. Children have barely started school again. Shops, ruined by the floods, remain closed with a few exceptions, giving the area the appearance of a ghost town patrolled by omnipresent soldiers. They are busy cleaning buildings and removing damaged vehicles, while the dried mud has become a public health hazard.

On the surface, a layer of ochre dust covers the roads and car wrecks swept up by a three-meter-high wave overflowing the Poyo ravine. Clouds of reddish particles are kicked up by every passing vehicle or gust of wind, irritating the respiratory tracts of local residents.

Administrative priority

The authorities have advised residents to wear FFP2 masks. "The little neighbor on level three, a 7-year-old girl with asthma, went to the emergency room five times," said Angelica Garcia, president of the owners' association of an apartment complex whose large underground parking lot is still filled with mud. "I found small black worms on my walls. They're coming up from the garage. Even with the heaters on, I can't get rid of the dampness," added Maité Barnès, a 43-year-old neighbor and mother of three, who lost everything when her ground-floor apartment was flooded.

A fan was installed in the garage of Robert Colero's apartment building to circulate the air and get rid of unpleasant odours. "As the cars floated, they broke a pipe, and for 15 days, all the wastewater, including fecal matter, poured into the garage until a neighbor who is a plumber repaired it. A company pumped out the mud, but the smell remains," he explained. For weeks, mud was dumped into the Poyo riverbed despite the risk of contaminating the aquifer. Now, the mud is being deposited at various sites while awaiting test results to determine how to treat it. According to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the equivalent of France's CNRS, nearly 40 million cubic meters of mud and debris have been collected since the floods.

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