Lower thirds: 

00:02 Report by Serdar Vardar & Nicole Ris
00:24 Raúl Mérida | Regional Secretary of Environment
01:53 Javi Jiménez | Biologist and Resident
02:29 Joaquín Raga | Metal worker

Script:

In Catarroja, just outside Valencia, Joaquín Raga is back in his metal workshop — months after it was swallowed by floodwater. 

+++ 
Joaquín Raga, metal worker 
[00:00:10 – 00:00:12] 
Hay gente que no tiene ni cocina aún.  
There are still people who don’t even have a kitchen.  
+++ 
 
The government is laying out plans to stop floods like this from tearing through homes and businesses again. 

+++ 
Raúl Mérida, Regional Secretary of Environment 
[00:00:21 – 00:00:36] 
Más importante, lo que puede proteger a la gente son unas obras que estamos proyectando para crear mini albuferas y artificiales. Es que decir, parques inundables que permitan actuar como esponjas
Most important are the new projects we're developing that could protect the people - these are mini artificial wetlands that will act like sponges
+++ 

Last October, Storm Dana unleashed a month’s worth of rain in just a matter of hours — turning roads into rivers and towns into islands. 

+++ 
Raúl Mérida 
[00:00:48 – 00:01:00] 
Tuvimos que retirar un millón de toneladas solo de la zona cero. 
While Valencia produces 180.000 tons of waste annually, we had to remove one million tons — just from the disaster zone. 
+++     

The regional government set up emergency sorting centers. Teams separated soil, plastics, metals.  

But some threats are harder to see — chemical residues and pharmaceuticals spread across wetlands. 
 
The region’s natural ecosystems were not able to absorb the volumes of runoff.  

That’s why officials are now proposing man-made wetlands — a lesson learned to help nature cope in the event of more flooding. 
 
Biologist Javi Jiménez lives near the Albufera lagoon, a fragile wetland that was already in decline before the storm. 

+++ 
Javi Jiménez, Biologist and Resident 
[00:01:39 – 00:01:43] 
Llega la Dana y supone, pues, un zarpazo más. 
When the flood hit, it made things even worse.

+++ 
Cleanup continues — much of it led by citizens. But Jiménez says the pace, and the scale, aren’t enough. 

Javi Jiménez 
[00:01:51 – 00:02:01] 
Lo que se está haciendo ahora mismo por parte de la gente que voluntariamente ve lo que ha ocurrido y quiere ayudar y ya está retirando residios... es muy importante, pero por supuesto completamente insuficiente. 
What volunteers are doing is vital, cleaning up waste is important— but completely insufficient. 
++++ 

Valencia’s plan includes parks that absorb water like a sponge — turning flood control into a public space.But while the plans are ambitious, the question is whether they will come fast enough, or big enough to meet the next storm. Because another Dana storm will come and could be worse. 
Scientists say human-driven global warming is intesifying extreme weather.

Joaquín Raga, metal worker 
[00:02:27 – 00:02:34] 
Sí, mi preocupación es por mi hijo para que quede, pues que comenzar a vivir ahora y tendrá que labrarse en un futuro con estos fenómenos.
Yes, I am concerned for my son's future, he is just about to start his own life and he will have to work with these phenomena in the future.

Joaquíns workshop is running again, but what worries him most isn't the last flood -- it's the next one.