The logistics of aid, the other great challenge after the damage in Valencia

The needs of the Valencian municipalities flooded by the flood, far from disappearing, are evolving or becoming entrenched. At first, after the Dana tsunami that devastated a good part of the towns in the industrial belt of Valencia on October 29, the main need in ground zero of the disaster was bottled water, boots to walk through the mud, food basics and cleaning and hygiene products. However, in addition to all that, tons of unsorted clothing, boxes and boxes of baby food and milk, and even high-heeled shoes arrived in the towns. Days later, what was urgently needed was heavy machinery to clear the streets of mountains of cars and muddy belongings, and water pumps to unclog the sewers, incapable of swallowing the tons of mud that thousands of volunteers coming from all over Spain were struggling to do. in sweeping to clean the roads. Today, the most urgent things are once again “some basic foodstuffs”, “appliances and furniture, paint”, “and the disposal of waste and vehicles” and the “mud from thousands of garages rotted with mould”, according to the affected mayors and the spokesperson for Zubigroupthe business group of the Valencian entrepreneur Iker Marcaidewhich has put its four business areas (250 people) and its warehouses (10,000 square meters) in Paterna at the service of aid logistics. It does so in a “completely selfless” manner and in coordination with the Valencian Chamber of Commerce, motorist associations (for transport) and the Government of the Generalitat itself, which has named them a “collaborating logistics center”, he assures, and provides them with the circulation permits.

However, many towns, such as Paiporta, Catarroja, Sedaví or Aldaia, continue to be large car cemeteries with mountains of rubble, and they continue to deal with their emergency on a daily basis as best they can. “The tsunami of mud was followed by another tsunami of solidarity, very nice but, as we have had to manage everything ourselves, all the people who called, from all over the world, has generated an impressive volume of work and the town councils did not have the capacity, we could not neither attend nor stockpile more,” explains the spokesperson for the mayor of Aldaia City Council. “At some point the Generalitat sent us people, some councilorbut they didn’t know the territory, or the people, they asked us to send emails when our computers didn’t work and we didn’t have the Internet… it has been a disaster, too,” he describes.

The Generalitat has enabled a website, We are solidarityto guide victims and affected people and in which you can fill out a form to volunteer or donate money to a bank account. But more than three weeks after the disaster, there is no overall logistical plan to channel all the aid.

“What has arrived has been a little overwhelming,” they acknowledge from the vice presidency of the Valencian Government. “Things arrived that had nowhere to be stored and that, like clothes, were even found lying in the streets and, on the other hand, the mayors were not prepared to manage all that and the Generalitat has given them a crackdown. hand”. According to this spokesperson, apart from the website, designed to integrate a good part of the activities carried out by the autonomous Administration, they have been in contact with the mayors, through intermediaries in the most affected towns. When they realized that there were problems receiving aid “that arrived haphazardly,” they created “a warehouse of solidarity” in Picassent. “There they sort and classify what arrives, both the EMU and the Red Cross, to then attend to the needs that are communicated,” explains the same spokesperson, who assumes that it is “a very complex matter, a bit of chaos.” However, he says, they are “trying to organize it and find a solution with the involvement of the Provincial Council, firefighters, police and civil protection.”

The feeling in the towns, however, continues to be overwhelming for their mayors, busy with millions of tasks and marathon days. “I am not aware that there is anything in coordination with the Government of the Generalitat, although from the General Directorate of Social Services they are sending food and basic necessities,” says Lorena Silvent, mayor of Catarroja. “We are developing a database of people and needs and we are setting up a logistics and volunteer department,” says Silvent. “We go day by day,” says José Cabanes Alonso, councilor of Sedaví. In Paiporta, its mayor, Maribel Albalat, explains that there is no coordination with the Generalitat, but that its City Council “has signed an agreement with the Basque NGO, Galdakao Boluntarioen Gizarte Elkartea (GBGE), to manage all the material that arrives, thank you to his own offer,” he comments. Last Friday, a plenary session was held in the provincial council to explain to the mayors all the aid that will be available in infrastructure and roads and to address who, Provincial Council or Generalitat, is going to do what, they say.

In the midst of the self-management of the overwhelmed councils and with a Government of the Generalitat recently partially renewed, the initiative of Marcaide and its partners has also emerged, which seeks to organize the aid: “We channel urgent aid for the areas affected by the dana” , announce the letters that fill the entire screen on their new website: Zubihelp. “We centralize and coordinate the distribution of resources to respond to the needs of the areas affected by floods,” they describe. In the almost three weeks that they have been in operation as “official” recipients and distributors of aid, they have received 150 trucks, channeled to 1,500 volunteers, served 15 affected municipalities, achieved the collaboration of 70 companies, received more than 4,000 shipments of material from all over Spain… are the meter data shown on their website, which is updated daily.

“María Guardiola, our financial director (CEO), called us from the Mestalla stadium, a few days after the catastrophe occurred, when tons of food was accumulating there, which had to be disposed of quickly and we decided to get our hands on it. to the work,” recalls Iker Marcaide. The next thing was to create a network of delegates in the affected towns so that they could detect the real needs on site and they will help articulate and adapt the aid, such as Pablo Medina. “I am an architect and a group of electricians and plumbers called me willing to come to Sedaví with 15 vans to work on homes and help with the reconstruction,” he says. “But first we had to identify where they could act, because we saw that many people came without a clear mission, who initially could be given a task but more and more specific tasks were required,” explains Medina. “In addition, we had to find accommodation for them and guarantee food,” he adds, to demonstrate all the logistics required to help effectively.

For example, water pumps arrived that were not useful for the town’s sewage system,” Medina recalls. “The needs for unloading the material were not taken into account, which implies having personnel to unload and places to store,” he adds. The most important thing now, he points out, “is the management of information and waste.” He also tries to reactivate sports activities in Sedaví, where he lives, to give life back to the town’s basketball team, since there are many children who have been left without being able to practice their sports activities.

A decade ago, Marcaide sold his company/unicorn (the start-up Flywire) for more than 1.5 billion dollars and resettled in its land, Valencia, with one objective: “Resolve social and environmental challenges for a better future,” which is the leitmotif of his business conglomerate, and focused on the production of green hydrogen, among many other things (eco-neighborhoods, schools…). Now it has put its infrastructure at the service of channeling aid. And to organize the avalanche of generosity, they created the website in two days, where there are forms that can be filled out to ask or offer help: “Request help”, “donations of products”, “volunteering”, “reconstruction”, “financial donation ”. “We are in action, mobilizing all our resources and connecting people from all over Spain to support those who need it most after the damage in Valencia,” he says. “We have launched a coordinated and organized effort from our facilities, preparing them to receive, classify and distribute the donated material effectively.”

NGO Solidarity Police

While this logistics center in Paterna continues to operate at full capacity and with an eye toward the future and reconstruction, other solidarity initiatives emerge between schools and city councils. It is the case of the NGO Solidarity Policewhich this week landed for the third time in the ground zero, specifically at the Sant Josep de Calassanç de Algemesí school, where they have arrived with a shipment of school supplies, “so that the Early Childhood Education area could open this Wednesday,” and a trailer full of gazpachos and juices, in addition to “with machinery pressure cleaning for the Paiporta town hall,” lists José Antonio Neira, president of this association.

“We have enabled a channel on our website to collect and send help to those affected by the dana,” he says. They operate and coordinate directly with city council personnel, who are the ones who identify the most urgent needs. “We began by bringing non-perishable food and shovels and boots to Catarroja, then setting up premises to store all the material that arrived and decongest the schools and cultural centers, also carrying out transfers of patients for medical tests to hospitals or bringing food to those who could not go out. from home, taking advantage of our freedom to roam; and now we have focused on bringing Karchers (pressure water cleaning instruments) and painting to Paiporta and Algemesí,” he says. “The next trip will be mainly for school supplies to help open schools and daycare centers, which is where we see the most need right now,” he concludes.