Executive Summary
The governance of Spain had an immediate need to respond to the volcanic eruption that interfered with its citizens’ normal operations. Over the years, Spain has undergone various economic and structural reforms that have enabled its instantaneous change in the development record. The government of Spain approved various policies that aimed at helping those who were affected either directly or indirectly by the volcano eruption in the country. Other new systems that the government came up with include reinforcing the emergency system; the government of Spain vowed to rebuild the volcano after its eruption (Marrero et al., 2019). Policies to commit and help the families and improve the volcano’s status were among the important policy decisions that the government of Spain vowed to accomplish.
Introduction
Data which was obtained from the Geographic Institution of Spain revealed that the volcanic flow started with weak tremors that later advanced to more powerful yet gradual seismic activity. The eruption left over 6,000 people, forcing Spain’s government to declare La Palma as a disaster zone (Marrero et al., 2019). The volcanic eruption interfered with the normal lifestyle of the people of Spain, which is why the government opted to react by providing their citizens with essentials as they recovered from the trauma. The study required an urgent reaction since there was a loss of properties and displacements of thousands of people. As a result of this displacement, the government of Spain reacted by coordinating on how to bring back the new normal lifestyle. The national, regional, security officers and the local authority of Spain worked towards achieving solutions to the problems that the citizens of Spain were undergoing during the tempting moments. The study will use published data and information to find facts about the volcanic eruption, which will help conduct further analysis and research.
Approach and Results
The emergency system unit of Spain took the matter seriously and investigated the occurrences, intending to provide a viable solution to the affected individuals. Among the participants involved with the process of finding a solution to the volcanic eruption included the army, military, Emergency Unit, and firefighters. All these aim to improve the social welfare and general reinforcement of necessary security beef up (Hayes et al., 2020). Security is important, and the only way that individuals who were displaced could remain safe was by deploying the protection personnel to the region.
After the eruption of La Palma, Sanchez made a statement that the government of Spain will commit by approving 206 million euros towards the fund aid of those affected by the volcano’s eruption. Other areas of concern that the government vowed to improve after the eruption caused damages, included the reconstruction of infrastructure, water supply, and other essential basic needs (Riera & Delgado, 2019). The part of money approved was to help develop and empower individuals to kick start their livelihood by empowering and advancing their economic welfare.
The other reform that the government of Spain initiated was to boost residential renovation and social housing. The executive members initiated a program that intended to regulate and aid programmers to help improve the proposed reforms. The investments and renovations of the after-effects of the volcano eruption would require 4.42 billion euros (Riera & Delgado, 2019). The government spokesperson stressed that the government would further initiate a new plan to construct residential houses for the people affected by the volcanic eruption. A total of 20,000 residential housing units were necessary for the new improvement and upgrade of the system.
Conclusion
The La Palma’s eruption interfered with the new norm of people’s lives, which threatened the government both socially and economically. Therefore, the governance of Spain had to react fast to bring back a normal life. Improvement and development of infrastructures and housing required urgent policies and development aid planning that the government enacted within a short period to combat the changes. Generally, the government of Spain strived to bring back the social and economic status to normal after the La Palma eruption occurred.
Implications and Recommendations
Since the volcanic eruption disrupted the normal lifestyle of the people of La Palma, the government moved with speed to ensure that its citizens were back in their normal business. Although it is a natural occurrence, setting policies that prevent people from residing in such places was an initial step to help in reducing the number of possible deaths and loss of properties. The government then set a part of funds to help in economic empowerment and to improve the citizens’ social welfare.
The Spain governance declared the La Palma region a disaster region. It asked its citizens to vacate the region by illegalizing settlements around the place until, otherwise, the government inspects its security (Hayes et al., 2020). Prevention is the best way to solve unforeseen calamities, and since the government has decided to remain vigilant by protecting its people, it will be better to solve the problem through prevention. The other implication is to educate public members on how to react if there are occurrences or problems related to a volcanic eruption. Eruption disrupts normal lifestyle, and if it is solved right, people will not waste their time and resources trying to fix the problem if it occurs.
References
Hayes, J. L., Wilson, T. M., Deligne, N. I., Lindsay, J. M., Leonard, G. S., Tsang, S. W., & Fitzgerald, R. H. (2020). Developing a suite of multi-hazard volcanic eruption scenarios using an interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 392, 106763.
Marrero, J. M., García, A., Berrocoso, M., Llinares, Á., Rodríguez-Losada, A., & Ortiz, R. (2019). Strategies for the development of volcanic hazard maps in monogenetic volcanic fields: The example of La Palma (Canary Islands). Journal of Applied Volcanology, 8(1), 1-21.
Riera, R., & Delgado, J. D. (2019). Canary Islands. In World Seas: an Environmental Evaluation (pp. 483-500). Academic Press.