Robert Raga, mayor of Ribarroja: “We cannot wait, we need ERTE and aid to lift the economy now!”

Ribarroja del Turia is one of the more than 60 municipalities affected by the catastrophic DANA that devastated the industrial and logistics belt of Valencia on Tuesday of last week. The town has not suffered the tragic toll of fatalities that it has left in neighboring towns such as Paiporta but its economic strength, which are several industrial estates with many of the warehouses located between the Poyo ravine and the Pozalet ravine staggers. The set of these polygons adds up to around 1,400 companies that employ 20,000 workers that on a normal Monday they would go to work in their private cars or on the subway or by bus, but today they will have it more than complicated because their company is devastated, because of the situation of the infrastructure, because they have lost their vehicle or because the Urban transport will also not be able to function normally.

“It’s a disaster,” he says. Robert Raga mayor of Ribarroja. “There are many dead, the priority is to find the missing but also to prevent the economy from stopping.” He assures that he has not rested in the last 72 hours and looks at what he has on the street and what is to come. «Tomorrow is Monday, people have to go to work and the companies and businesses that can, open; There are people who have lost everything but we must hurry to protect those who cannot help themselves and help those who can recover their activity.

The gas supply was not guaranteed yesterday in the polygons due to the mud and the accumulation of all types of dragged material. Raga assures that in recent days They have “combed” the town in search of missing people. And while he cites the work of the UME and the army in saving lives, he has asked the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community (CEV) helps companies of all types provide machinery with which to clear the streets, pump and clear debris to facilitate a minimum of circulation in the logistical heart of the capital.

It is the fifth day after the disaster. «There are many trucks lying around, broken down and some 1,000 cars to be removed; We need help with cranes, tub trucks, gondolas and machines to clear the roads,” he says. The wave of solidarity of volunteers equipped with buckets and brooms is not enough and companies with technical means such as Castilian Sticky They send trucks and excavators from capitals like Valladolid. On a normal day, 10,000 vehicles could travel on the roads surrounding the industrial area of ​​Ribarroja. “On the day of DANA, the trailers floated and descended at full speed, the 500 liters (per square meter) that fell higher passed through here towards Paiporta,” he remembers.

In the industrial estates now flooded with mud, the logistics and distribution centers of large companies such as Mercadona, Lidl o Consumbut also thousands of SMEs that connect directly to the port of Valencia or to the highways that connect the entire Mediterranean arc. It is the latter that Raga’s concern focuses on, as he knows many of the businessmen personally. “Large companies may have the lungs to endure but we have to give SMEs a hand now, we can’t wait,” he claims. In the same way that he asks for cranes and trucks, Raga has already been with the Valencian Ministry of Economy. «We need the ERTE and all the aid to small and medium-sized companies so that they can endure the pull and that there are no layoffs, overcome this with planning, ask Europe for money…»

Since 2015, the mayor of Ribarroja had already asked the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation for works in the Pozalet ravine two years ago to avoid damage from the periodic floods of water, although the last DANA has been on an unapproachable scale. He considers that the priority is to find the missing, restore infrastructure and not let the economy collapse. “I am focused on what I have to be, but it is true that we will have to reflect because there has not been the necessary speed,” he says in reference to the lack of coordination of the administrations from the moment of the alerts to the mobilization of public means to face the disaster. “Removing the dead is the first thing but we must now start to raise the economy,” he concludes.