The Castelló City Council and Facsa They officially present the new and updated protocol for actions due to rain for the municipality 2023-2024, which has the ultimate goal of establishing prevention measures and procedures for the teams and systems for evacuating runoff water, mainly in episodes of torrential rain and cold drops or DANA (Isolated Depression at High Levels), in Castelló.
During the last hydrometeorological year (from September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023) the protocol has been activated on five occasions, remaining active for 36 days, mainly during the months of November 2022 and May of this year 2023. As a noteworthy fact, the month of May of this year has been the rainiest since records have been kept in the Valencian Community, highlighting the record of more than 180 liters per square meter on May 26.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the City Council has promoted new actions to improve the sanitation system during this year 2023 worth more than three million euros.
The protocol includes more than 50 operations and actions to be carried out by service personnel at municipal facilities. The 28 main operations are activated when rainfall reaches 10 liters per square meter or if an orange or red precipitation alert is issued. The remaining actions are activated when rainfall exceeds 30 liters per square meter. The protocol concludes when the established levels are restored after the rainfall event.
In terms of infrastructure, Castelló has 12 Archimedes screw stormwater drainage stations, 145 drainage pumps, 28 generator sets, and 34 floodgates, with a total daily drainage capacity of 2.8 million cubic meters. Furthermore, thanks to the installation of protective screens for the receiving environment, more than 1.5 tons of runoff are prevented from reaching the natural environment during each rainfall event.
It should be noted that, for the activation and supervision of the protocol, the Castelló City Council has its own resources, as well as the material and professional resources employed by Facsa as the contractor for the Service of Conservation and Maintenance of the Pumping Facilities of the Sewerage Network and Spill Control in the Municipality of Castelló de la Plana, the most important being three all-terrain vehicles, two light industrial vehicles, auxiliary and dewatering pumps of various power and flow rates, a fleet of seven sewer cleaning trucks, as well as 20 professionals to act in case of any emergency.
Through the aforementioned contract, improvements have been made this year to various facilities, including upgrades to the sluice gates of the Entrilles irrigation canal, improvements to the fencing at Tornillos de la Plana, improvements to the enclosure of the Serradal Pumping Station, and the replacement of pumps at the Lidón and Villalón Pumping Stations. A solids retention basket has also been installed to reduce the impact of overflows at mid-level discharge points, and new installations have been integrated into the remote control and monitoring system, bringing the total value of integrated installations to €88,778.12.
Likewise, the City Council makes available to citizens the “Castelló SMC” application to report any type of incident, which can be downloaded for mobile phones via http://smc.castello.es
