LA DIGNITAT DE TOT UN POBLE / THE DIGNITY OF AN ENTIRE PEOPLE

On the streets of l’Horta Sud, brown stains still mark the low houses and shop fronts. They are traces of the water and mud that flooded several municipalities in the Valencian Community on the afternoon of 29 October 2024, bringing a year’s worth of rain in a single downpour. The catastrophe claimed the lives of 229 people and affected over 300,000. By the time the emergency alert arrived, at 20:11, towns and roads were already flooded.

“The first days were spent searching for our loved ones, clearing all the mud out of the houses and emptying the few belongings that remained,” says Rosa Álvarez, who lost her father to the floods. “We didn’t even know what had happened to us. We were in shock.” Álvarez chairs the Association Víctimas Mortales DANA 29 de Octubre (Victims of Dana on 29 October) to demand justice and reparation for the families of the victims.

Álvarez was part of a delegation that met with representatives of the European Commission in May 2025. “No one warned us that the river was rising,” states a letter sent by the families to the European institutions before the meeting. “Prevention failed. Coordination failed. Early warning systems failed.”

For the past year, thousands have gathered monthly in the streets of Valencia to demand justice and reparation. They have called for the resignation and prosecution of the president of the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian Regional Government), Carlos Mazón, who was ultimately responsible for mismanaging the emergency.

Following 12 mass demonstrations and after the shouting of the victims’ relatives during the state funeral, on November 3, 2025, Carlos Mazón announced his resignation.