Catalonia has activated its flood plan 21 times this year so far, highest figure in a decade

Catalonia's 'Inuncat' flood plan has been activated 21 times this year to date, the highest figure in at least a decade.

According to Civil Protection data obtained by the Catalan News Agency (ACN), the special flood emergency plan for Catalonia has been elevated to the alert phase on 20 occasions, as many as in all of 2024, which was already a record, but this year there has also been one more activation in the emergency phase.

Inuncat also has a pre-alert phase, which does not involve activation of the plan.

Civil Protection is finalizing a review of the thresholds to activate the flood plan, as "more extreme episodes" are increasingly seen.

Meteocat, Catalonia's weather service, is also participating in the reformulation. This year, it has issued warnings for more than a third of the days of the year, a figure also a record in a decade.

The analysis of the impacts of recent years and the effects they have caused are key to the review.

Authorities say that climate change is one of the main reasons for adapting the guidelines. 

The Deputy Director General of Coordination and Emergency Management of Civil Protection, Imma Solé, explains to ACN that this year there have been "specific moments" in which the rain has affected systems and infrastructure with "a certain intensity."

She says the rainfall has had a bigger effect this year because we are coming from a period of drought and very little precipitation.

However, Solé denies that the high frequency of activating the flood plan is a reaction to the destruction seen in Valencia last year.

"We work with the same parameters that we worked with before", she assures. At the same time, she admits that they are "mindful" of the disaster that took the lives of 229 people last year.