The disaster caused by the cold drop in Valencia has left us dramatic images, both because of the immediate consequences it has had, and because the future awaiting us has brought us forward: that this type of extreme climate phenomena will be increasingly numerous and serious. This inevitably forces us to reflect on its effect and to articulate concrete mechanisms to ensure our protection and survival.

There is nothing new in Valencia. As they recently published, three out of ten damaged homes were built in flooded areas during the time of the housing bubble. It is clear how, for the umpteenth time, the fever of brick prevailed, that is, the logic of the benefits of construction and the real estate sectors, and not the rational organization of space. However, if this problem were exclusively Valencian, that is, if it were a specific and specific event and not repeated annually in other parts of the planet, we would say that its root is the form of management and not management as such. It would therefore suffice to punish Sánchez, Mazón or any ruler in power: “Surely someone else would do better!” Unfortunately, there is the typhoon Yagi that this year has rocked Vietnam, the floods of June 2021 in Germany, which also affected Belgium and killed 230 people, the natural disaster of Poland or, without having to go far, the floods of the Ultzama, Arga and Ebro rivers three years ago. These and many others remind us that the working class always has to suffer collateral damage.

On the contrary, it seems that some people care about a sludge. An example of this is the Etxabakoitz Sectoral Plan for Supramunicipal Incidence (PSIS): According to the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, 70% of the homes planned for this area will be built in flood areas. Etxabakoitz is a district severely abandoned by the institutions and in which they plan to carry out a tremendous urban operation: Construction of some 12,000 housing units directly related to the profitability of the TAV project. This would affect their neighbours to a greater extent than they already suffer, with the material and human consequences that this may entail. We could say that this is a lack of responsibility, but the fundamental problem is the logic of economic benefits, which now seek to camouflage under the mantra they have called public-private collaboration.

According to the general consensus, the solution is always to build more dwellings, whether public or private, although this leads, as in this case, to the construction of dwellings in flood zones, arguing that “in cities there is no land for development”. According to the belief on which this approach is based, the problem is the scarcity of supply and not access to housing. Based on this premise, the solution to the problem is to boost the real estate business, without questioning whether, instead of building more, it would not be more effective to use empty houses, as some 7,000 in the Region of Pamplona and more than 30,000 in Navarra, according to the INE. The belief that the ultimate solution is to build massive buildings in cities also increases the opposition between the rural environment and the city and the depopulation of rural environments.

There is an urgent need to break this pattern. If the housing business is the root cause of the problem, the solution cannot in any way be to promote this business. Economic profitability must be neglected, because before, now and in the future, it also generates deplorable situations: empty housing, devastated neighborhoods, neighborhood expulsions and flooding areas, which cause frequent material damage. Breathe and blow together. There are sufficient resources for everyone to have quality housing, but to do so it is necessary to change the focus, make a selection: the logic of economic benefit or common well-being; the needs of the working class or the interests of a few. Against the housing business, we will mobilize on 28 November in Pamplona and another on 14 December in Bilbao. We see each other there.

Andoni Burguete, member of the Socialist Housing Union of the Region