Within the package of measures to those affected by the DANA approved on Monday, the Government has included a package of assistance focused on to support municipal social services with a 50 million euro reinforcement.. In addition to this support for public services, there are other subsidies for NGOSNGOs, animal protection organizations and social workers, who are also working in the affected areas to assist the population. All of them make up what the Ministry of Social Rights has baptized as the “Social Protection Network”- The Executive has also prohibited funeral parlors from raising their prices in the face of the high number of deaths.
The second royal decree dedicated to the DANA and approved by the extraordinary Council of Ministers on Monday includes a transfer of 50 million from the State to the municipalities hit by the floods to reinforce municipal social services. The Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, has explained that the objective is to to provide the local administration with the necessary resources to take care of all situations of poverty following the catastrophe, which threatens to leave thousands of people at severe risk of social exclusion.
In addition, the Government has also approved 5 million euros in direct aid for the Third Sector Platform.which brings together nearly 28,000 entities throughout Spain, such as Red Cross, Caritas, CERMI or the Volunteer Platform, many of them turned these days in the Valencian Community. Bustinduy has stressed that these entities are being “a key player” to respond to the emergency and get help to all affected corners.
The package of measures also includes an aid of 700,000 euros for the State Group for Intervention in Social Emergencies.made up of professionals specialized in assisting victims of catastrophes. This group of experts is part of the General Council of Social Work and has been working in the area for days. “The public authorities always walk hand in hand with organized civil society,” said the Minister of Social Rights.
Likewise, the Government has also approved 390,000 euros in aid to animal shelters affected by the DANA.This support will enable them to rebuild their infrastructures and reinforce their services. The ministry of Pablo Bustinduy has underlined the work carried out in the last days by this type of entities for the custody and care of stray and abandoned pets, especially in a context in which there is a risk of infections and in which the number of animals that have been left in the street has multiplied without any type of sanitary control. This is the first time that the Executive gives the green light to this type of aid for animal shelters.
Beyond aid, the Government has prohibited funeral parlors from raising their prices and to offer higher rates than those announced before October 28, the day before the tragedy. According to the Ministry of Social Rights, the objective is to guarantee that all the people who need to resort to this type of services can do it “in conditions of equity”. Only in the province of Valencia the DANA has left 214 dead for the moment and there are still 41 missing. “A tragedy of these characteristics cannot be a context that gives rise to the economic benefit of any operator”, has defended Bustinduy.
The Ministry of Social Rights has also introduced in the royal decree law approved this Monday a relaxation of the deadlines for the processing of subsidies. for projects of third sector entities that have been affected. Thus, the deadlines will be extended for those entities that have suffered damage to their facilities, their staff or that have had to relegate their ordinary projects to collaborate with emergency tasks.