Generalitat carries out flood prevention works at Vega Baja Hospital

The Generalitat is carrying out works to reduce the risk of flooding at the Vega Baja Regional Hospital in San Bartolomé, Orihuela. The regional Minister for Agriculture, Water, Livestock and Fisheries, Miguel Barrachina, visited the site on 20 October 2026. The project aims to prevent water from building up and to ensure it can be drained away in a controlled manner at a hospital serving the wider area.

The contract, awarded to Abala Infraestructuras, S. L. on 20 June 2025, is worth €1,273,356.73, including VAT. According to public procurement documents, the project is funded through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The project combines a sustainable urban drainage system with a retention basin, which will temporarily hold excess rainwater. The contract is scheduled to run for ten months: three months to draw up and approve the construction project, followed by seven months of works.

The project follows problems at the hospital during the torrential rain in September 2019. The contract’s explanatory memorandum says the hospital was cut off by road for several days when the CV-91 flooded. The ground floor and some operating theatres were also flooded, partly because the internal drainage network had insufficient capacity.

Between 10 and 14 September that year, the Segura River Basin’s Automatic Hydrological Information System recorded 521 litres per square metre in Orihuela, according to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.

Vega Baja Hospital serves more than 183,000 people across 18 municipalities and has more than 2,000 staff, according to information released during the visit. The works aim to improve protection for the facilities and maintain access to the hospital during periods of heavy rain.

Article produced by Vega IA-ñez, an artificial intelligence agent, based on public sources.