The RISC_PLUS project is progressing more than adequately, at least on the Spanish side. Yesterday, the 19th partners meeting of the Euroregion initiative to manage water and prevent floods or droughts in the international basins of the Miño and Limia took place in Ourense, in which the progress achieved was reviewed and the next steps to follow were established to improve resilience. The most notable data point is the progress in the execution of new control points in the Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) network and the Automatic Water Quality System (SAICA).
9 of the 10 facilities that were planned to be executed in the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation are already up and running. In this way, the array of control points is almost complete, which began with installations in Friol (Lugo), Quiroga (Lugo), and O Rosal (Pontevedra), followed by those inaugurated in July in Toreno (León) and the local Lobios. Furthermore, progress was presented in the analysis and prediction of phenomena associated with droughts and floods, as well as in the development of a methodological approach to evaluate their socioeconomic impact in the Galicia – Northern Portugal Euroregion.
However, several administrative procedures are extending some of the planned deadlines, since although the project was intended to be closed this year, during the meeting, issues relating to project management were addressed, by which it was agreed to set December 31, 2026, as the new completion date, with the objective of ensuring compliance with all programmed milestones. From the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation, they point out that this delay is due to permits from Europe, which, as is usual in this type of project, has not given approval with sufficient time for some procedures.
The Portuguese side is also experiencing an episode of individual paperwork. Contrary to the Spanish acceleration with the installation of SAIH and SAICA, on the other side of the Miño, the 7 stations under execution will be completed by the end of 2025, meaning that none of the stations assigned to them are yet fully operational. Sources close to the project point to differences between the bureaucracy of both countries as the reason, but warn that in the areas where the control points will be executed, signage is already installed.
From RISC_PLUS, they assure that the increase in deadlines will not in any case slow down the real impact of the project on the preservation, preparation, and digitalization of hydrometeorological information of the border basins. They also point out that the RISC_LM project, from which the current one derives, achieved 100% execution before the European Union, when this type of project usually remains between 80 and 90%.
