By Eva Máñez
VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) – Families and teachers protested in Valencia on Saturday to demand action on schools damaged by deadly floods that killed more than 220 people in eastern Spain and affected the education of thousands of children.
Carrying signs demanding the resignation of Valencian leader Carlos Mazón, protesters marched through the Spanish city almost a month after the country’s worst natural disaster in decades, on October 29.
Controversy over the regional government’s flood management is still ongoing, with a teachers’ union accusing it of leaving cleanup in the hands of teachers and students.
Five people remain missing in the Valencia region after torrential rains and floods drowned people in cars and underground parking lots and collapsed homes.
Thirty schools remained closed, the regional teachers union STEPV said, leaving 13,000 children with nowhere to learn.
About 5,000 people attended the demonstration, the Spanish government said.
“We feel abandoned because teachers, parents and volunteers have had to clean the schools. We have seen cleaners in some schools, but not enough,” STEPV spokesman Marc Candela told Reuters.
A spokeswoman for the Valencian regional government said that since November 11, around 32,000 students from flood-affected areas have returned to school.
“Extraordinary cleaning tasks are being carried out in educational centers,” said Daniel McEvoy, Valencian Minister of Education.
Mazón has been accused of sending flood warnings to residents too late.
He admitted he had made mistakes but refused to resign, saying the body responsible for measuring water flows, run by the national government, did not send enough warnings.