The nearly 400 residents of the Selva Brava and Font Bona urbanizations in Llagostera all too frequently suffer from a problem that should be, at best, sporadic. Not a drop of water has come out of their taps for four days.
And in the middle of a heat wave the consequences are aggravated. "With these temperatures, on Tuesday I got a telele and I didn't even have water to cool off," explains Diego, a neighbor who yesterday went to the tanker truck that the Llagostera City Council has made available to those affected to provide them with water to wash. clean the dishes or take a shower. It also offers bottled water, up to 13 liters per house per day.
It is the umpteenth breakdown in the supply network managed for decades by the company Rec Madral, which declines to make statements. "The infrastructure is obsolete, maintenance is scarce, breakdowns do not stop and leaks are repaired weeks late," says another resident of Selva Brava.
Those affected have lost track of how many times, either due to a leak or various breakdowns, they have run out of water in their homes. One of the residents lists that in nine months she has already experienced three episodes that have lasted more than a day and twenty breaks of several hours. "In addition, there is not a day that there is not a leak on one side or the other," complains Félix Modrón, who carries two eight-liter jugs of non-potable water to wash and another thirteen liters to drink.
The repeated complaints against the company for its lack of investment were repeated yesterday along with the tanker truck that will pass daily through the two affected urbanizations until the problem is resolved.
“This is desperate, we have been like this for four days now; with this heat one cannot even take a shower; It's a shame, and the company hasn't even issued a statement,” says Josep Maria Hierro, who has lived in the Font Bona urbanization for more than two decades.
"Unfortunately it is not a new situation for us, we suffer from it every two by three and the company goes through everything," adds Gracia, mother of two children aged five and eleven who fight the high values of the thermometer soaking in a small pool at the They have maintained water throughout the year.
The Consistory has also put at the service of those affected the hot water showers of the sports hall and offers free access to the municipal swimming pool of the urbanization of La Canyera.
The mayor of Llagostera, Narcís Llinàs, acknowledges that beyond pressing for the company to promptly resolve breakdowns and offer residents emergency solutions, there is little else he can do.
"Our hands are tied, it is an agreement between a private company and the residents" acknowledges the mayor, who is studying with the City Council's legal services whether legal action can be taken.
The urban situation hinders their ability to act. Font Bona is in the process of being received by the City Council but Selva Brava has not yet started the process. At the end of the last term, the City Council unanimously approved allocating 1.5 million euros to channel drinking water to the two neighbourhoods, of which some 553,000 euros will be provided by the Agència Catalana de l'Aigua. The new channeling will make it possible to guarantee that the City Council assumes the management of the water supply service in both nuclei.
