Spain's meteorological services issued an orange warning (the second most serious) for several regions of the Valencian Community from 9pm today due to a new DANA, an “isolated depression at high levels”.

DANA is the meteorological phenomenon that caused torrential rain and flooding that on October 29 caused more than 200 deaths and destroyed homes and infrastructure in the Valencia region. Two weeks after the floods, cleaning work in the affected areas continues and warnings and recommendations to the population for fear of public health problems continue.

Among the most insistent alerts and recommendations are those related to the state of the sanitation network, which includes gutters. On Monday, the regional government of the Valencian Community even asked for more means to unclog the sludge and water sanitation network and avoid “serious public health problems”.

On the same day, the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, also announced 500 million euros for a “specific action plan against sludge”, as there are streets that continue to be filled with mud and dirt and it is necessary to unblock, clean and also repair “as soon as possible” the basic sanitation and water supply and treatment networks, removing “thousands of tons of mud and rubble”, in a “huge task”.

This Tuesday, and given the new meteorological warning for the areas affected by the floods, several municipalities asked the population to avoid throwing and sweeping mud into the streets, so as not to collapse the sanitation network and gutters. The regional government's civil protection department also asked this Tuesday that city halls and other bodies adopt “preventive measures sufficiently in advance of the severe impact that the next DANA could cause on the populations affected” by the floods.

The executive highlighted the “vulnerability of the affected territory and the people who are working in the area” and specifically recommended that schools be considered on Wednesday. “Teleworking and avoiding the use of a private vehicle are recommended to reduce travel,” added Valencian civil protection, which highlighted that the rains in the next few hours “could be severe”.

Some municipalities in the region have already followed the recommendation to close schools on Wednesday and several, such as Algemesí, have called for the placement of “wood or barriers” at the entrances to ground floors and garages, taking into account the state of the gutters, which can causing “accumulation of water in the streets”, despite no rains as torrential as those on October 29th being expected.

The mayors, like the State government, assured that they are focusing their efforts in recent days on unblocking the sanitation network and gutters.