Less than five per cent of the €330 million promised for flood protection in the Vega Baja has been spent, even though the current six-year programme is approaching its end.
The projects form part of the Segura River Basin Flood Risk Management Plan for 2022–2027, prepared by the Segura River Basin Authority (CHS), which comes under Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition.
However, completed work and projects currently under construction amount to little more than €16 million. Most of the major schemes remain at the planning, public consultation or environmental assessment stage.
The slow progress is causing concern as September 2026 will mark seven years since the devastating DANA storm flooded large parts of the Vega Baja.
Following that disaster, the CHS carried out emergency repairs to riverbanks, irrigation channels and damaged flood defences. These included work at the Benferri weir, the Derramador ravine near Jacarilla and sections of the Segura in Almoradí where embankments collapsed.
However, the larger projects intended to prevent similar disasters have still not begun.
The CHS commissioned Valencia Polytechnic University to study how future flooding could be reduced. Its recommendations included restoring natural river channels, increasing drainage capacity, creating green corridors and controlled flood zones, expanding reservoirs and improving forests and upstream land.
Despite years of technical studies, the CHS is already preparing its next flood-management programme for 2028–2033 while much of the present plan remains undelivered.
Major schemes remain on paper
One of the largest proposals is the Tabala dam, which has an updated budget of €71.8 million. A public consultation opened in January 2026, but construction has not started. The CHS hopes to tender the work in 2027 if it receives environmental approval.
The Abanilla ravine project is also considered essential. Water from the ravine caused severe damage to Orihuela’s Puente Alto industrial estate during the 2019 storm.
Around €50 million has been allocated for flood defences, environmental restoration and a connection with the Segura. Nevertheless, the latest official monitoring report listed the scheme as not started.
Progress has also been delayed by disagreements with landowners, farmers and irrigation communities. Many proposed flood corridors would require productive farmland to be converted into areas where water could be temporarily stored during severe storms.
The Campaneta-Formentera-Hondico corridor would connect the Hondico de Amorós wetland with the Segura estuary at Guardamar. It would help manage flooding from both the river and the Abanilla ravine, but local farming groups remain concerned about losing agricultural land.
Plans to increase the drainage capacity of the Santomera reservoir are also at the preliminary design stage. No construction contract has been awarded.
Guardamar provides the main progress
The most visible work is taking place in Guardamar, but it is being delivered by the Valencian Government rather than the CHS.
The regional administration is investing more than €16 million in dredging the Segura estuary and completing the first stage of the Azarbe del Señor green corridor.
Approximately 80,000 tonnes of mud and sediment have been removed from the river mouth. Irrigation groups and councils said the material had restricted the river’s flow for decades.
Environmental organisations have questioned the benefits of dredging and argue that raising the N-332 beside the river could offer stronger flood protection with less environmental damage.
The Azarbe del Señor project is intended to improve drainage between San Fulgencio and Guardamar. It includes two embankments and changes to the final section of the irrigation channel so it can collect and carry more stormwater.
Smaller projects are also being prepared around Pilar de la Horadada and San Pedro del Pinatar. These include four flood-control barriers and a temporary water-storage area at Lo Romero.
For now, however, the Vega Baja’s most important flood defences remain plans rather than completed infrastructure, leaving residents waiting for protection seven years after the region’s worst modern flooding disaster.
