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Valencian Farmers Challenge State Move to Reclassify Flooded Farmland as Public Water Domain

A closing review of flood-risk maps could set new state-controlled boundaries without compensating private owners.

Overview

  • Spain’s Environment Ministry is revising flood hazard maps that would fold damaged parcels along rivers and ravines into the Dominio Público Hidráulico, which places them under state control if unchallenged.
  • The public consultation, posted in the official state gazette, runs for three months and would give the new boundaries administrative presumption unless landowners file objections in time.
  • More than 300 hectares of cropland were badly hit or swept away in the dana floods, according to the farm group AVA-Asaja.
  • AVA-Asaja says earlier meetings brought only a verbal pledge to study compensation, then it learned of the mapping process through a local delegate and a query to the Júcar river authority.
  • The group has sent letters to national and regional officials, held briefings for owners, and is weighing court action as Agriculture’s €11,800-per-hectare payout covers lost income from damaged infrastructure but not the land itself.