Malaga continues to 'exploit' its most illustrious comedian, Chiquito de la Calzada, to make the population aware of the problems, both environmental and economic, involved in throwing wipes down the toilet. And it is that, according to what the city council of the capital of the Costa del Sol, promoter of this curious campaign through the water company Emasa, has announced, only in the first half of the year, up to 537 tons of this solid waste have been removed from the wastewater facilities of this city. With a very "small" gesture, as the initiative points out, this "Spanish filth" can be put an end to, which means that these products, mostly non-biodegradable, end up in the sea, in addition to causing major blockages in the sanitation network.
“Quietorrr, don't throw the wipes in the WC”; "Do not throw the wipes in the WC, for your teeth"; "Where are you going with that washcloth?, sinner of the prairie"; “When you throw the wipes in the WC it is not a see you later Lucas. He is a see you soon!”; or “Throwing the wipes down the WC is a dirty Spanish thing. Do you realize? ”, Are some of the phrases that accompany the image of the comedian while he throws one of these wipes into the trash can.
The humor of Chiquito de la Calzada, who also gives voice to an ornamental traffic light in the center of Malaga that repeats his great phrases, is still very much alive in the city. For this reason, the municipal council has considered that including it in this awareness campaign (endowed with a budget of 28,664 euros) could impact public opinion and put a stop to a gesture that ends up contaminating the environment.
The councilor for the Environmental Sustainability area, Penélope Gómez, has pointed out that the withdrawal of the amount of wipes accumulated in the first six months of the year in wastewater treatment plants (EDAR) and wastewater pumping stations (EBAR) shows that "much remains to be done" in society, despite the fact that awareness lines are being carried out in educational centers, universities, neighborhood associations and other groups. In 2022, a total of 2,368 tons of this waste were removed.
These are "very high figures that generate significant problems in our sanitation networks, and in our environment, especially in the marine ecosystem," the mayor commented during the campaign presentation ceremony.
Malaga is not the only capital that is facing this type of problem. At the beginning of the year, an island of this type of waste appeared in the Guadalquivir, as it passes through Córdoba, and which, according to official sources, correcting the traffic jams caused by the wipes in the network entails an impact of 1.5 million euros per year.
