Project management

Cancellation of the Poyo project has proved to be a tragically false economy, writes columnist Mark Nayler

Mark Nayler

Malaga

Friday, 15 November 2024, 18:14

Teresa Ribera’s confirmation hearing for the job of EU energy and competition commissioner - described by one MEP as an “insane shit-show” - came at a difficult moment. In the rowdy Q&A session in Brussels on Tuesday night, Spain’s environmental minister and third deputy prime minister faced hostility from the European right, some members of which called for her to be prosecuted for negligence in advance of the floods on October 29th.

Ribera responded that Spain’s floods were a domestic matter, to be discussed in Madrid rather than Brussels. But she also reiterated her commitment to improving the bloc’s ability to cope with floods and droughts, as well as to speeding up the green transition. Unfortunately no-one asked Ribera how compatible she thinks those two priorities are - a practical problem with which she has direct experience.

Telecinco reported this week that in 2021, Ribera shut down an infrastructure project in Valencia that might have reduced the damage and loss of life inflicted by the recent floods.

The plan to channel the Poyo ravine, which caused some of the worst flash flooding on October 29th, was approved in 2009 by the conservative government of José María Aznar. Despite being rated as a top priority by Valencia’s regional water confederation (a public body that reports to the environment ministry), the plan was repeatedly shelved by successive national governments - although Ribera herself approved it in 2011, when she was secretary of state for climate change under Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The Poyo project languished for another decade before Ribera finally cancelled it in September 2021, despite being advised by hydrographic experts that it was still necessary. According to The European Conservative, which also reported the story this week, she did so on the basis of “new cost-benefit criteria” and because it was “too interventionist in its environmental impact assessment”. One of the biggest problems Ribera will face if she gets the EU job is the extent to which her environmental policies are compatible with measures to contain potentially lethal rivers and streams.

Cancellation of the Poyo project has also proved a tragically false economy. The budget was 250 million euros, about ten times less than the estimated cost of repairing the damage caused by Valencia’s floods (although of course El Poyo wasn’t the only cause of that damage).

Ribera was a little shaky when asked about competition matters on Tuesday evening. Given her lack of professional experience in the area, that’s understandable. But she assured everyone that she would put her trust in a “great team” in order to live up to the standards set by her predecessor, Margrethe Vestager - Donald Trump’s dreaded ‘Tax Lady’. Hopefully the members of that team are actually listened to, unlike the flood experts who kept pushing the Poyo project.

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