27 January 2004

SAN SEBASTIAN – The bill for the damage caused by flooding in the Basque Country at the weekend could be as much as EUR 600,000, it was revealed Tuesday.

Jose Ramon Beloki, spokesman for the Consortium of Compensation (CCS) which represents councils, refused give a total figure for the damage caused by the overflowing of a main river even though the damage to the infrastructure alone would be over EUR 382,000.

The CCS told EFE that an estimation of the cost of the damage would be EUR 600,000 – even though this figure could vary.

Beloki said the regional council is badly effected by the overflowing of the River Urumea which affected municipal property, six farms and cider plants.

He said it showed how the regional parliament could put in place a system of help for those affected as if they were in a catastrophy zone.

“We know that it is an excepcional situation but we shelter doubts about what we can do in the conditions” he said.

He added that it has to be considered a “catastrophe zone”, but the central administration will decide how badly the area was affected.

Beloki said it was “necessary and urgent” to clean and to channel the river Urumea in order to stop this happening again in the same way.

Vicente Arrizabalaga, the mayor of Astigarraga, a town nearby, said for many years the town had been affected by the overflowing of the river and appreciated that the Basque government would speed up work “to end the incertainty” and so the “neighbours could sleep easy”.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news