Barcelona Now a week ago, he warned the neighbors that that was the last time he was going there. The distributor who brought water in cisterns to the neighborhoods of Vallpineda and La Rierada de Molins de Rei, in Collserola, has stopped and will not return on those roads that, he says, damage his truck. At least not at the same price. As long as the route is not paved, he does not plan to return to work in this area where he worked for a month, after the previous distributor died. Around 500 residents live in these neighborhoods without a supply network or sewage system, who until now paid 55 euros for each 10,000-litre tank, a price subsidized by the City Council, since it assumed the cost of transport. While they are demanding an urgent solution from the council, about twenty families no longer have water left in the tanks and some are considering hiring a company to bring them water in tanks, with rates that reach up to 390 euros for the same liters they received usually.
Like other neighbors, Alex, who has been living in the area for five years, learned last week from the same delivery man subcontracted by the company Aqualia that this would be his last service in the neighborhood. He criticizes the “negligence” of the City Council, which does not inform and “does not want to fix the streets”. He says he’s taking it “philosophically” and tries to stretch the water left in his tank as much as possible by taking short showers or, if he can, showering at the gym, an option he admits isn’t good for the elderly people or with small children. He thinks of his neighbors next door, with four children: “If I had children, I don’t know what it would be like. I think I wouldn’t be here anymore and I would have gone home to my parents.”
In fact, his next-door neighbor, Julia, is considering sending her children to their grandparents’ house. Two families live in their house, with five children in total, aged between one and eight. There is water left in his tank for two or three days, and the company he has contacted to refill it “doesn’t give the scope” to the demand of the neighbors, and has told him that it will take about 10 days to be able to come .
An urbanization that “never arrives”
The president of the Association of Owners and Residents of Vallpineda, Lluïsa Núñez, believes that “the fundamental problem” is that the area has not yet been urbanized, and explains that the association she chairs was created 40 years ago precisely with this claim. So far they have been making do with “precarious solutions”, such as the system of water tanks, and regrets the “feeling of abandonment by the City Council” after the last development project got stuck and the new “it never quite arrives.”
Neighbors like Júlia went to live in the neighborhood knowing the lack of supply but with the urbanization plan on the horizon. She installed a gray water reuse system which means that now, with land and a garden, the family spends “less water than when they lived in Barcelona in a flat”. In her case, the mortgage she signed almost four years ago included a surcharge of 60,000 euros to contribute to the development, and she hoped that during this time, when she had her second daughter, she would already have access to running water. When the development plan fell through, the mortgage surcharge was also withdrawn. Now she would even be willing to pay out of pocket for the connection to the network in order to have running water.
Lluïsa Núñez states that the residents themselves have proposed to the council the names of two drivers who could take over the service, but “they haven’t even responded”. In this neighborhood in the middle of Collserola they are also worried about the risk of fire. After months of drought, they are used to the restrictions of not making fire, for example with barbecues, and being in charge of pruning their land to prevent the flames from advancing through the forest. Now they fear they won’t be able to put out even a small flame in their garden.
An “insulting” response
Neighbors, in contact with a WhatsApp group with more than 200 people and that “takes smoke”, value more protests after standing with megaphones at the last municipal meeting to demand a solution. The answer, according to the Association of Owners and Residents of Vallpineda, was that they can shower in the municipal pavilion, which “is far” (seven kilometers) from the affected houses and has no public transport connection on weekends . “The type of service they offer is a bit insulting. But what do we do with the dishes, clothes, children and animals?” asks Lluïsa Núñez. Júlia criticizes that, in addition, they have been instructed to go and shower between 10 and 12 in the morning: “I work in Barcelona. Will I tell my boss that I don’t work from 10 to 12 to go- take a shower at the Molins pavilion?”
Consulted by the ARA, the Molins de Rei Council refers to the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), which claims to be the holder and responsible for the water service. On the other hand, the AMB clarifies that the law gives them competence in the distribution of drinking water in the metropolis of Barcelona, but some municipalities such as Molins de Rei have valid municipal concessions, which were already in force when this law was approved. The AMB limits its intervention so far to the approval of rates and they add that they are working to take on the competition with a new concession. This, however, they say is still municipal, and remember that the contract with Aqualia and the company that distributed the water was signed by the council.
2024-07-03 19:55:15
#residents #water #supply #Molins #Rei
