The vast majority of the towns in the Maresme region, often so hard hit by floods and storms, do not have or have expired for years the special emergency plan for floods in Catalonia (Inuncat), which facilitates, among other things, effectively face and manage emergencies caused by floods in its territorial area.
The Inuncat de Protecció Civil, allows organizing the operational response to manage any emergency related to floods, to minimize risks, guarantee the safety of people and the protection of assets, infrastructure and the environment. 75% of the municipalities of the Maresme do not comply with these premises.
Only seven municipalities in the coastal region (Arenys de Mar, Caldes d'Estrac, Malgrat de Mar, Premià de Mar, Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Santa Susanna and Tordera) have become aware of their responsibility in the face of natural floods. According to Civil Protection, the emergency plan is mandatory and a municipal responsibility. Despite the obligation, the Generalitat can only require its compliance but does not have coercive or sanctioning mechanisms.
The emergency plan is the legal figure that allows justifying the adoption of emergency measures to the population. If these are not complied with, the victims could make use of the omission in their legal defense. Similarly, lacking these plans would complicate a possible declaration of a catastrophic area.
Eight of the Maresme municipalities have let the plans drawn up in their day expire, some since 1996, such as Vilassar de Mar, or 2002 such as Pineda de Mar, both on the coastal coastline and often temporary victims of destructive capacity. Others have had it expired for 14 years, such as Cabrera de Mar, like them 62% of the coastal municipalities.
Unfortunately, thirteen municipalities, 46% of the region, have never drawn up these defense plans despite many of them having high-risk internal basins, such as Alella, Argentona, Arenys de Munt, Palafolls, Premià de Dalt, Teià, Tiana or Vilassar de Dalt. Others also do not have the Inuncat despite maintaining a very high risk of suffering maritime storms, such as El Masnou, Montgat and Sant Vicenç de Montalt.
A separate case is the Argentona stream, a space that is the subject of a detailed study by the forestry engineer doctor, Oriol Bassa, who analyzes that a sudden storm could cause a flood of up to 409 m3 per second, the same amount of water that falls in a day by the river Ebro.
Some of these municipalities claim that they do not have technical availability or personnel to draw up the plans. The same sources recall that the Barcelona Provincial Council offers aid for this purpose and that the Civil Protection itself makes an advice office available to interested parties to inform municipal officials.
The General Directorate of Civil Protection also trains municipal technical staff on the implementation of plans and drills, with the objective of informing and providing resources to local administration staff to implement a civil protection plan through drills.
On September 20, the first of these courses was held with the assistance of 18 municipal technicians from all over Catalonia and three county councils. Of all of them, none of the Maresme.
